The High Court has awarded a factory worker €365,536, including €250,000 for past and future earnings loss, after finding that his back injury was caused by work at Queally Pig Slaughtering Ltd.
In a judgment delivered on 21 December 2022, Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said the defendant admitted liability during the trial, before an industrial ergonomics professor gave evidence. The remaining issues concerned the cause and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries and losses, including whether he had taken reasonable steps to limit his losses.
The plaintiff, Patrick Ryan, was injured on 13 April 2017 while repeatedly twisting and lifting bags of pork in the company’s VAC PAC section. The bags could weigh 25 kilograms or more. He told the court that he felt severe pain in his lower back while swinging a bag. He attended a doctor the following day and was referred to Clonmel Hospital’s emergency department.
The judge accepted medical evidence that the plaintiff had facet joint dysfunction and that the work contributed about 20% to arthritis in his spine. He rejected the defence contention that a pre-existing “bad back” was the sole or substantial cause of the plaintiff’s condition and inability to work.
The plaintiff returned to light duties in July 2017, but stopped working in April 2018 as his pain worsened. The court found he was unfit for employment and that the defendant had not established that he failed to take reasonable steps to reduce his losses. The judge noted that the company had not assessed what tasks he could safely perform and that the proposed alternative work was hypothetical.
The award comprises €130,000 for agreed past earnings loss, €120,000 for future earnings loss, €110,000 in general damages and €5,536 in agreed special damages. The future earnings figure reflects a 20% discount for uncertainties. The court also noted that €75,086.45 from the total was payable to the Minister for recoverable benefits.
The court ordered judgment for the plaintiff, together with his costs, to be detailed in the perfected order.