Coates v Fennessy, Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1939
• Date: 01 January 1939
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Coates

and

Fennessy, Ltd.

-Minor - Probable earnings - Earnings obtained by misrepresentation - Whether evidence of the weekly sum which workman "would probably have been earning" - Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934 (No. 9 of 1934), s. 25, sub-s. 2, Third Schedule.

1. Sect. 25, sub-s. 2, of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934, provides:—"Where the workman was at the date of the accident under twenty-one years of age and the review of the weekly payment] takes place more than six months after the accident and the application for the review is made before, or within six months after, the workman attains the age of twenty-one years, the amount of the weekly payment may be increased to such amount as would have been awarded if the workman had at the time of the accident been earning the weekly sum which he would probably have been earning at the date of the review if he had remained uninjured." A workman, who was a minor, employed by the respondents, met with an accident on the 2nd December, 1935, and was awarded compensation in the Circuit Court on the 6th October, 1937, at the rate of 12s. per week, on the basis of total incapacity, from the date of the accident to the date of the hearing, and from that date at the rate of 5s. per week, on the basis of partial incapacity, it being agreed that he should forthwith return to his employment at his pre-accident rate of 15s. per week. He resumed work with the respondents on the 7th October, 1937, and remained in their employment until the 26th October, when he was dismissed, and sometime later he obtained employment with a certain Company, being engaged by his uncle, who was the Company's foreman. By falsely representing that he was over 18 years of age he was given a man's work, and during the 18 weeks of his employment with the Company, he earned an average weekly wage of £2 4s. 8d., the weekly wage for a full week's work being £2 13s. 7d. His work at first consisted in unloading cement blocks, but later, when he was given the heavier work of carrying liquid cement in buckets, his previous disability recurred, and being no longer fit for his work, he was dismissed on the 24th February, 1938, and since that date he made no effort to obtain suitable employment. On the 7th January, 1938, he issued an application to review the award of the 6th October, 1937, and to increase the weekly payment as from the 26th October, 1937, the change of circumstances relied on being his dismissal from the...