Meechan v Savco Earth Moving Pty Ltd
[2021] QDC 14 · Sheridan DCJ
A labourer was injured at a Crestmead construction site in January 2014 when he was standing in the back of a truck and was struck by the boom of an excavator. He had just thrown a heavy metal shackle to the excavator operator, who reached out to catch it and accidentally bumped the controls, causing the boom to swing and knock the labourer to the ground. He fractured his right elbow and complained of ongoing shoulder problems. He sued the principal contractor that owned the excavator, arguing it should not have let an unlicensed person operate the machine and should have removed the keys. The court accepted the company had been careless in those ways, but decided the real cause of the injury was the labourer throwing the shackle at the operator, which would have caused the same injury even with an experienced driver. The claim was dismissed. The judge added that, had the company been liable, the labourer would have been 80% to blame and damages would have been about $39,000.
Incident & injury
Plaintiff, standing in the back of a truck, threw a D shackle at the operator of an excavator; the operator bumped the joystick and the excavator boom struck the plaintiff, knocking him to the ground.
- Body regions
- Shoulder, Right elbow, Right shoulder (Right)
- Diagnoses
- Closed comminuted intraarticular mildly displaced fracture of the right radial head, Post-traumatic stiffness of the right elbow, Right supraspinatus tendonitis/subacromial bursitis
- Incident date
- 21 January 2014
- Location
- St Francis College, Julie Street, Crestmead, Queensland
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 5 February 2021
- Claim type
- PIPA Public Liability
- Proceeding
- Trial
- Plaintiff outcome
- Unsuccessful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- 23
- Occupation
- Labourer (construction/kerb and channelling) Labourer
- Liability
- Disputed · 80% contributory negligence
- Whole Person Impairment
- 5%
- Total damages
- $0
Outcome
The claim was dismissed. Although the court found Savco breached its duty of care by allowing an unlicensed operator to use the excavator and by failing to remove the keys, the injury was caused by the plaintiff's own act of throwing a heavy shackle at the operator and would have occurred even with a qualified operator, so the breach was not causative. The court also indicated it would have found 80% contributory negligence and assessed damages on a contingent basis at $39,044.69.
Defendant
1 Savco Earth Moving Pty Ltd
Principal contractor / occupier
- Judgment against this defendant
- $0
Heads of damage
| General damages | $10,000 |
|---|---|
| Past economic loss | $17,250 |
| Interest on past EL | $0 |
| Past superannuation | $1,639 |
| Future loss of economic capacity | $0 |
| Past special damages (plaintiff) | $1,000 |
| Past special damages (WorkCover) | $6,299 |
| Fox v Wood | $2,857 |
| Subtotal before refunds | $39,045 |
Key issues
Meechan v Savco Earth Moving Pty Ltd [2021] QDC 14
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