The council decided to demolish a pantry in a tenant’s bungalow. When our electrician arrived to disconnect electrics, the joiner had already destroyed two of the pantry walls.
Between them, the joiner and the electrician agreed it was best to disconnect the electrics before any more work. However, in doing his work the electrician caught his thumb on a jagged and sharp area of broken brickwork.
The simple case was that the work should have been phased safely: electrics first, then demolition.
Failure to plan and phase work safely is a breach of Regulation 10 (1) of the Construction Regulations.
The Judge agreed. We won.
Telford County Court, 22 January 2009.
Being thrown as a standing passenger on bus
Although in most cases bus drivers do not have a duty to allow passengers to reach their seats before starting off, the courts sometimes rule they should exercise discretion to ensure that those more likely to have difficulty are seated. This may include passengers who are elderly or infirm or, as in this case, those carrying a lot of baggage.
Our client was thrown from her feet when the driver pulled off suddenly, as she was still standing and the bus jerked quite violently. She landed heavily and suffered injuries to her neck and knee.
Here we secured an admission from the driver that he would normally allow those with bags to their seat – but did not do so here. We won this claim.
Newcastle CC,