The High Court has rejected a worker’s claim for damages over a serious back injury he suffered while fitting a wheel clamp in Dublin in 2003. The judge found that he had not proved the injury resulted from negligence or a breach of duty by his employer, Central Parking System Ireland Limited, trading as Control Plus.
Rodney Forde said he was injured at about 9pm on 26 August 2003 while clamping a car on Fishamble Street. His case at the hearing was that a component called a “November bar” was bent and became jammed as he tried to fit it. He said he injured his back while using force to free it. He also alleged that workers were required to use the bar and faced pressure to meet a work quota.
The company denied negligence and disputed that the bar had jammed. It argued that Forde may have been incorrectly positioned while carrying out routine work. A fellow employee testified that he removed the bar without difficulty after Forde called him over. The company’s engineer said a bar bent in the way alleged could not become jammed as described.
Ms Justice Irvine said she was satisfied Forde sustained a serious back injury in the course of trying to apply the clamp. But she was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the bar was bent or jammed, or that he injured himself by exerting significant force to remove it.
The judge noted that an incident report prepared in the weeks after the injury recorded that Forde felt sharp pain while manoeuvring the November arm. It did not mention a jam, unusual force or a defective bar. The claim’s early pleadings also did not identify a bent bar or a jammed mechanism; the bent-bar allegation appeared in further particulars in 2010.
The judgment said Forde’s pre-existing degenerative changes left him vulnerable to this type of injury. The judge considered it highly likely that he was hurt while fitting the clamp in the usual manner, perhaps while taking an incorrect position, but said it was not for the court to second-guess precisely how the injury occurred.
In a judgment delivered on 25 October 2011, the High Court dismissed the claim. It found no negligence, breach of duty or breach of statutory duty by the company.