Our client was a Scottish construction worker
aged 49 years.
At the time of his accidents he was working on
a large road construction project in Bedfordshire.
The Claimant suffered two separate accidents.
The first occurred on the 25th January 2002.
The second occurred on the 4th February
2002.
In the first accident the Claimant was working
on a scaffold on the north column support at the site. A crane was
lifting a column into position when the ground under one of the
sleepers supporting the crane gave way and the crane began to
topple over. The driver of the crane immediately released the
column which fell down the outside of the scaffold catching the
scaffold at various points as it fell. The falling column caused
the Claimant to be thrown about against the guard rails of the
scaffold. Fortunately the Claimant escaped serious injury but
suffered bruising to his ribs and attended hospital.
On the 4th February 2002 he was working on the
main prefabricated column at the site, as part of the team
replacing bob bars. Bob bars are heavy L-shaped steel bars. One
member of the team acted as the banks man/slinger. He was
responsible for securing the bob bars to the crane so that they
could be lifted into place. He would secure one of the bob bars
using the chain attached to the crane. The chain was then wrapped
directly around the tail of the bar a couple of times and then
hooked back on to the crane. The banks man/slinger did not use a
canvas sling to secure the bar and there was no safety catch on the
hook of the crane. As the bob bar was being lifted, it became loose
and suddenly fell, falling and striking the Claimant in the middle
of his back causing crush fractures to his spine at T3, 4 and
5.
We were first instructed in June 2002 and
agreed to act on a conditional fee basis. The employers at the site
were a joint venture between two large construction companies,
Edmund Nuttall Limited and Norwest Holst Construction Limited.
Letters of claim were sent to these companies
under the Personal Injury Pre-action Protocol. Their insurers
responded denying liability, claiming that they were not
responsible because they were not the employer of the Claimant.
They instead blamed a third party company, J Kelly Limited who had
recruited the Claimant on to the site.
The Health & Safety Executive took
proceedings against Norwest Holst Construction Limited and Edmund
Nuttall Limited and they were subsequently convicted.
Notwithstanding this they still maintained their repudiation of
liability.
Proceedings were therefore issued against
Norwest Holst Construction Limited and Edmund Nuttell Limited in
the High Court.
A Defence was filed denying liability and
blaming J Kelly Limited. We then issued an application for summary
judgment on the basis that the Defendants had no real Defence to
the claim.
Shortly before that hearing, the Defendants
consented to judgment being entered against them.
Judgment was therefore entered in October 2003
with damages to be assessed.
In January 2004 the Defendants paid a total of
£50,000 into Court (after deduction of the recoupable benefits) in
full and final settlement of the Claimant's claim.
We advised the Claimant to reject this and he
agreed to do this. The risk to the Claimant was that if he was not
awarded more than £50,000 then he would not recover his costs of
the claim after the date of the payment in and would in addition be
ordered to pay the Defendant's costs. This would effectively leave
him with little or nothing.
Notwithstanding this, we considered the
payment in was too low and that he would be awarded more at
trial.
We therefore carried on with the preparation
of the case for the assessment of damages and the hearing was
listed in the High Court for the 23rd and 24th November 2004.
Eventually on the 12th October 2004 the
Defendants increased their offer to settle the claim for a total of
£250,000, after deduction of the recoupable state benefits of
£7,778.55.
The Defendants also agreed to pay the
Claimant's legal costs and expenses of the claim.
Peter Todd
Hodge Jones & Allen
1st August 2005