The High Court has awarded a housing inspector €95,379.22 after finding Limerick City and County Council liable for injuries he sustained while emptying a cemetery bin. The court found the council was not negligent in a separate accident involving a wheelie bin the following year.
Mr Justice Barr delivered judgment on 24 June 2021 in the claim brought by Dermot Price, who was 61 at the time of judgment and had worked for the council since about 1997. He became caretaker at a cemetery in Castlemungret, County Limerick, around 2001, and later worked as a housing inspector.
The first accident happened on 6 January 2014. The court accepted Price’s account that he was trying to lift the inner steel drum from a public bin whose handles were missing. As he lifted it from the base, his hand slipped and he caught the drum before it toppled, wrenching his lower back and right shoulder.
The judge found the bin was dangerous because it lacked handles, making it difficult and hazardous to lift. He accepted that Price had complained to his supervisor about defective bins and found the council had failed to inspect, repair or replace the faulty drum. The court found no contributory negligence by Price and held the council liable for injuries caused by that accident.
The second accident occurred on 19 March 2015, when Price and a colleague pushed an industrial wheelie bin up an incline at the cemetery after he had asked his supervisor for help. Price said he developed severe shoulder pain during the effort. The court found the council had not been negligent: Price had received manual-handling training, assessed the task, sought assistance and received it. The judge nevertheless treated the shoulder condition as a continuum that began with the 2014 accident and worsened over time.
The parties disputed whether Price’s back and shoulder symptoms were caused by the accidents or by pre-existing degenerative changes and his past rugby activity. The court preferred the evidence of Price’s orthopaedic expert, noting that he had not experienced symptoms in those areas before the 2014 accident. It attributed his pain and suffering to date to the trauma of that accident superimposed on previously asymptomatic changes. For future symptoms, it accepted a 50-50 apportionment between the accident and those changes.
The court awarded €45,000 for general damages to date and €7,500 for future pain and suffering after that apportionment. It also awarded €9,197.07 for lost pension entitlements, €26,827.52 for loss of earnings and €6,854.63 for other agreed special damages. The resulting award was €95,379.22, for which judgment was entered against the council.