The High Court dismissed Brendan Blake’s personal injury claim against Thorn Motors Limited, trading as Michael Tynan Motors, after finding him wholly negligent in a ladder fall at the company’s garage premises in Clondalkin, Dublin.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 29 June 2023, Ms Justice Reynolds dealt with liability only. The court did not determine damages. It heard evidence over two days and said the only issue was whether the defendant had been negligent. The plaintiff had conceded contributory negligence at the outset, but the judge ultimately found him wholly negligent and dismissed the claim.
Mr Blake, a self-employed tradesman, had been engaged as an independent contractor to carry out renovation work at the garage in 2011. The work included relocating a glass display cabinet, removing and repositioning a block wall and fire door, and replacing tiles. About two weeks before the accident, he and Mark Tynan had used a ladder to check tiles stored on a roof over the workshop entrance. The ladder was secured in the workshop’s car-jack area.
Mr Blake said he attended alone on a Saturday to complete the tiling. A car prevented him from placing the ladder in the same area, so he moved it elsewhere. After climbing and descending it several times, he said the ladder began sliding from the wall and he fell. He accepted he was in a hurry, had prior experience using ladders, and that properly securing the ladder would have prevented the accident. He also accepted that Mr Tynan and employees were available to help.
An engineer called by the plaintiff said the accident was caused by “Base Kick Out” when a ladder’s base is not properly secured. He said a risk assessment should have identified hazards. Mr Tynan accepted that no risk assessment had been carried out.
For Mr Blake, counsel argued that the defendant had duties under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Construction Regulations 2006, including duties concerning a project supervisor and a written safety and health plan. The defendant argued that the small renovation job was not a construction site and that Mr Blake controlled how he carried out the work as an independent contractor.
The judge found that Mr Blake could have secured the ladder with a heavy object or sought readily available assistance. She said the danger should have been obvious and distinguished the case from *Curley v Summerhill Construction Company Ltd*, which concerned a construction site. The court rejected the argument that this job required the defendant to appoint a project supervisor and dismissed the claim.