The defendant company appealed against a finding of liability for injury when its employee fell from a ladder at work. He had been removing an item stored in a loft. The procedure was that the ladder should be footed by another person. The claimant said he had not been told so, but this was denied.
Held: The appeal failed. The method used was in breach of the regulations: ‘The breaches of the Regulations found by the judge (and rightly so found) meant that the claimant was exposed to a risk to which he should not have been exposed. It is no answer to say that the accident would have been avoided if the instructions for use of the ladder had been strictly followed. The claimant’s departure from the prescribed practice was precisely the sort of departure invited by this lengthy, complex and makeshift system. The very likelihood of such a departure reinforces the need for a safe means of access to have been provided.’ The fact that the employer had found alternative storage spaced was sufficient to refute the argument that it had done all that was reasonably practicable to avoid the need for the first storage system.
Judges:
Sedley, Richards, Sullivan LJJ
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Civ 863
Links:
Statutes:
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Personal Injury, Health and Safety
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.421073
