Lord Atkin.-

This is an appeal from judgments of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand in four proceedings which were brought to determine the liability of employers in respect of injuries to their workmen that occurred on the occasion of the serious earthquake in the Hawkes Bay District of New Zealand on 3rd February 1931. By the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, exclusive jurisdiction is given to the Court of Arbitration to decide without appeal claims under the Act. But by a convenient procedure it is possible in New Zealand on agreed facts to obtain the decision of the Supreme Court on a question of law, the judgment being subject to the ordinary rights of appeal. In the present case proceedings having been commenced by originating summons were moved directly by order of the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeal, from whose decision appeal is now brought to this Board.

The provisions of the New Zealand Act, so far as liability is concerned, are identical with those of the English Act. The question is whether the workmen concerned suffered “injury by accident arising out of and in the course of their employment.” The parties agreed upon a statement of general facts and also of the particular facts applicable to each case. It is only necessary here to state that the earthquake was exceptionally severe, of intensity 10 on the Rossi Forel scale. In the last 90 years there had only been 10 recorded earthquakes of this class in New Zealand. The district was a recognized earthquake zone. Its area was 3,567 acres and its population 57,000. It included the borough of Napier with a population of 19,000 and the borough of Hastings with a population of 15,500. Approximately 250 people were killed and at least five times that number injured. The great majority were killed by the collapse of brick buildings or brick chimneys. In each borough there is an area, generally the business area, usually described as the brick area, in which the law requires the buildings to be constructed of brick or other, more or less, indestructible material. Whether the buildings with which these cases are concerned were within such area is not stated; but it does not seem to matter. In any case they were of brick. Numerous earthquakes have occurred in New Zealand, but only five have been attended by loss of life.

Turning to the particular facts, in two cases the workman was killed and the claims are by dependants; in the other two cases the workmen were injured and make the claims themselves. In Brooker's case Brooker was employed as a “gut runner “in his employer's freezing works, Paki Paki, near Hastings. He was employed in the gut house, and at the time of the accident was employed on a staging about 4ft. above a table and 7 to 7ft. 6 inches from the ground. The access to the staging was from the table. When the shock came Brookers mate escaped from the staging, but Brooker while stepping on to the table was pinned down by falling debris and killed.

Ryan was not killed. He was engaged at the same works as a slaughterman. He was working on the second floor. The floor began to collapse; he tried to get out but was thrown down at the spot where he was working, was covered with debris from the collapsing building and suffered severe injuries whereby he has been totally disabled.

Prendergast was employed by another firm of employers as a shepherd at their works at Tomoana. The sheep are slaughtered on the fourth floor of the works, being driven up a sheep race with a gradient of 1 in 2.9. Prendergast's duty was to drive the sheep up the sheep race and pen them. While standing on the fourth floor alongside the sheep race by reason of the motion he lost his balance and fell down the sheep race, a distance of 119 ft. He was injured and totally disabled for 14 weeks. Ashwell was employed as a porter at an hotel in Napier. He had left the hotel in performance of his duty to post, letters, get the mail and do some shopping for his employers in the course of his