Riordan v Clyde Shipping Company

JurisdictionIreland
Judgment Date20 December 1944
Date20 December 1944
CourtSupreme Court
(S.C.),
Riordan
and
Clyde Shipping Co

-Total incapacity of workman - Serious and permanent disablement -Unauthorised act by workman - Finding that act was performed "for the purpose of and in connection with" employers' trade or business -Whether "deemed to arise out of and in the course of" the employment - Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934 (No. 9 of 1934), s. 15, sub-s 2.

  1. Sect. 15, sub-s. 2, of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934, provides:—"Where an accident results in the death or serious and permanent disablement of a workman, such accident shall for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to arise out of and in the course of his employment notwithstanding the fact that such workman was at the time when such accident happened acting in contravention of any statutory or other regulation applicable to his employment, or of any orders given by or on behalf of his employer, or that he was acting without instructions from his employer, if such act was done by such workman for the purpose of and in connection with his employer's trade or business."The duty of a workman was to feed and water cattle and to look after them generally while in transit in one of the respondent company's vessels. Under the terms of his employment, such food as he required on the voyage was provided by the workman, while his quarters on the vessel were fitted with steel lockers to be used by him to store his food until it was required. Ventilation of the holds and underdeck parts of the vessel was effected by means of a number of shafts, each containing an electrically-driven steel fan attached to the top of a metal box which contained the motor driving the fan. The metal box was secured in position by three steel brackets which ran from the box to the sides of the shaft, the operation of the motor being controlled from the engine-room by the ship's engineers. As the heat of the weather and the heat from an adjacent steam-pipe rendered the lockers provided by the company unsuitable for the purpose of storing perishable food in warm weather, the workman attempted to suspend a small box containing his food from a bracket in one of the ventilation shafts in which the fan was then revolving...

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