A 60 year old painter suffered a serious back injury when he was required to carry a fire door weighing more than 80kgs up several flights of stairs. At one point the door had to be lifted over his head and in doing this, he suffered a serious back injury.
This injury has required two bouts of surgery with a lot of rehabilitation and has left Mr A unable to return to work as a painter. Mr A had hoped to retire in a few years but due to his injury has been left in a precarious financial situation. Simon Meigan (Partner of Taylor & Scott) ran workers compensation proceedings securing Mr A lump sums for his permanent back condition and for his pain and suffering.
Simon Meigan then brought a work injury damages claim to secure Mr A’s future loss of wages up to his nominal retirement age. Commenting on the case, Simon Meigan said – “Mr A’s case is a good example of an employer requiring heavy lifting jobs to be done by workers who are ill equipped physically to do them.
Lifting of very heavy fire doors up flights of stairs in overhead positions should only be performed by expert labourers who are physically fit and trained for this type of work or an alternative method such as mobile cranes should be used.
Mr A was in the twilight of his working life and was attempting a job that he wasn’t physically capable of doing” In the work injury damages claim, Simon Meigan secured Mr A’s wage loss up to retirement giving him financial security for his family.
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