A WIDOW'S CLAIM.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1919, Page 5

A WIDOW'S CLAIM.

£SOO DAMAGES AWARDED. A QUESTION OF MEDICAL EVIDENCE. In the Court of Arbitration, Wellington, on Wednesday, Rosinci Evelina Harland brought an action against Ebenezer Woolridge, of New Plymouth, to recover £SOO as damages for the death of her husband, who was in the employ of the defendant. Mr. Justice Stringer presided over the court. With him were the assessors, Mr. W. Scott and Mr. J. MeCullough. The plaintiff alleged that from February 7, 1917, to September 1, 1917, her husband, the late Thomas Harland, was employed by the defendant, at a rate of £3 10s per week, to drive a motor car. On September 1, 11)17, lie was driving a car, with a passenger named Archibald Thompson, from Opunake to WanganuiBetween 10 and 11 p.m., about nine miles from Wanganui, Harland had to swerve suddenly in order to avoid a car that was carrying no lights. The result was that his car skidded, ran over a bank, capsized, and burnt. Harland was taken to Wanganui Hospital, and there he died on September 17 as the result, plaintiff alleged, of .the injuries that he had sustained through the accident, Plaintiff olaimed that she and her two children, aged eight and five years respectively, had been totally dependent on the earnings of the deceased. The defendant denied that Harland died from injuries received in the accident. The cause of Harland's death, according to the defendant, was typhoid fever. Mr. E. Marshall, of Hawera, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. P. E. Ward, of Wellington, for the defendant. The only witness for the plaintiff was Walter Kerr Hislop, formerly medical superintendent of the Wanganui Hospital. Dr. Hislop stated that -when Harland was admitted to the hospital he ivas suffering from severe haemorrhage and shock. On the evening of September 7 he showed symptoms of what witness diagnosed as typhoid. The amount of shock and haemorrhage rendered him susceptible to cateli any disease of which the germs happened to be present. Death within ten days of the development of typhoid was not usual. The critical period of typhoid cases occurred generally in the third week. Witness considered that the accident, with the consequent exposure, loss of blood, and chock, was a contributory cause of death. J. W. Anderson, medical practitioner, of Wanganui, was called by the defendant. In witness' opinion, Harland died of typhoid. Hfs injuries did not seem severe enough to have much effect. To Mr. Marshall, witness stated that what Harland had undergone as a result of the accident would lower his vitality and his resistance to typhoid. The court heard the arguments of counsel. In giving judgment for the plaintiff for £SOO general damages, £2O funeral expenses, and £lO 10s costs, the court held it to have been proved that the accident. had rendered Harland an easy prey to the disease with which he became infected. It found that the plaintiff had succeeded in establishing the necessary "unbroken chain of causation" between the accident and Harland's death.