BROKEN SLING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19723, 14 December 1926, Page 9

BROKEN SLING

WHICH CAUSED DEATH SHIPPING COMPANY ACCUSED OE NEGLIGENCE. CLAIM DISMISSED BY COURT. (Per Presi Association.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 13. The judgment of the Court of Appeal, given by His Honour the Chief Justice, was delivered to-day in tho case of Elizabeth Welsh, widow, of Lyttelton, and her husband’s executors, appellants, and the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, Limited, respondents. The appeal was from the judgment of Mr Justice Herdman in an act'ou brought by the executors of the late Isaac Welsh against tho shipping company. Damages were claimed far the death of Welsh, who was killed by a cask of pelts falling on him following the breaking of a sling, and negligence on the part of the respondent company or its servants was alleged. The acta of negligence relied on were that, first, the defendant company failed to take reasonable care to sec that the sling was fit to be used, and, secondly, that the sling, having been used on the previous voyage of the ship, ought not to have been used on the second voyage and ought to have been discarded. After reviewing the accident the judgment stated that the learned Judge had found it was proved beyond doubt that the appliances were to all external appearances fit for use. He, however, found that the sling had, unknown to the ships’ officers and men, been weakened by coming into contact with sulphuric acid, which it had picked up from leaking casks in the previous July. It appeared from the evidence that pelts were in practice immersed in a pickle composed of water, sulphuric acid, and salt. There was usually a fair amount of leakage* from casks when being loaded on shipboard, “It is probable,’’ said the Chief Justice, “ thcreiore that leakage from the casks of pelts laden in July, 1925, may have come into contact with the sling which failed. Although the solution of sulphuric is very dilute, tho learned Judge has found that contact with thia corrosive liquid in July, 1925, was the cause of the deterioration of the sling. We are, of course, bound by this determination.”

The Court thought that tho suggestion of negligence was completely answered by the findings of the trial Judge, which were, inter alia, that the slings wcro subjected to proper exam-, inauon and all proper precautions were taken to make sure that the slings wore sound and fit for use. 11 It is quite impossible, we think,” said His Honour, “For this Court to go behind thesfc findings of fact of the trial Judge, and that clearly disposes of tho case for the appellants upon the first suggested head of negligence.” In regard to the second head, relat-' ing to the usage of slings that had been used on the previous voyage, the judgment stated that this suggested! head of negligence had been virtually abandoned. “There was substantial evidence,” said His Honour, “that the practice deposed to was by no meane a general or accepted one, and it wae quite proper and in accordance with regular and proper usage to use slinga after proper examination until they showed signs of deterioration by wear, chafing or otherwise.” The appeal was dismissed, with costi on highest scale as upon a case from a distance.