A claimant slipped at 7am in a market. He was the first there and was switching on the lights. The successful argument was that the cause of the slip – held as likely to be a vegetable leaf by the Judge – must have been left overnight. Hence it could be inferred that the cleaning overnight was not adequate.
The Judge found that a reasonable cleaning system would not leave a leaf around overnight and hence there was a breach of the Workplace Regulations as it was reasonably practicable to have removed the leaf.
However 20 per cent contributory negligence as there was a high degree of responsibility to look out when opening up.
Even after the deduction there were damages of £104,000.
10 September 2009.
Large settlement despite increased earnings after his accident.
The claimant suffered a severe crushing injury to his right hand. He was 33 years old at the time of settlement and was earning £26,000 net per annum. He lost about 90% of the function of his hand. He was off work for four months and then returned to work in an administrative capacity. He was promoted to shift manager. His earnings are now well in excess of what he would have been earning at the time of the accident.
There was no doubt that he was clearly disabled and was in the DDA criteria. On the arguments by actuaries about the earning capacity of injured people disabled by an accident, his future loss was calculated at £282,651, despite the fact that he was earning more money after the accident than before it.
The case settled three weeks before trial for £303,000 of which about £180,000 related to future loss of earnings.