The High Court dismissed Patrick Donnelly’s claim against LPB Building Services Limited and Bernard Tansey over an eye injury sustained while he was dismantling a wire fence in his back garden. The court found that no employer-employee relationship had been created and that the fence removal was not done in the course of any employment.
Donnelly said he was working for the defendants on a renovation project in Ballina and had been told by Tansey to remove the fence before work on his property. He alleged that he had not been given a safe system of work, protective goggles, training or supervision. He said a wire sprang back as he cut it and struck his right eye, causing a full-thickness corneal laceration. Surgery repaired the injury, but he was left with visual impairment and an increased risk of cataracts and eye infections.
The defendants denied employing him. They said he was removing the fence in his own time and for his own benefit, and argued that his failure to wear eye protection caused the injury. Tansey said any cash he gave Donnelly was a gesture of goodwill for allowing equipment to be stored in Donnelly’s shed, not payment for labour.
The judgment records evidence from neighbours and others who had seen Donnelly doing work around the renovation site. The judge accepted that he had been seen sweeping and doing some tasks, but found that this did not establish employment. He considered the contractor’s office wage records reliable; they contained no record that Donnelly had been taken on. The judge also noted that the council contract required workers to hold a safe pass.
The court separately concluded that the fence removal was outside the renovation contract. It accepted Tansey’s evidence that Donnelly had been told to remove anything he wanted to keep from his garden before work began, rather than instructed to take down the fence as an employee. Donnelly had taken a suitable tool from the contractor’s truck himself.
The judge’s principal conclusion was that the parties had never formed an employment relationship. He added that, even if Donnelly had been engaged for odd jobs, removing his own fence was for his own benefit and not within that engagement. The court found no negligence by the defendants in the circumstances and dismissed the claim. The judgment does not record a damages award or any further order.