- within Environment topic(s)
Johnson v Warburtons Limited, Court of Appeal, 2014
Facts
The appellant had driven an articulated lorry for four years. On the date of the incident, he had been required to drive a rigid lorry which he had seldom driven before. Whilst driving, the Appellant heard something topple over in the cargo area.
To access the cargo, there were two steps inside the lorry. The appellant's foot slipped off the bottom step and he fell from the lorry and into a gully, breaking his ankle. The appellant appealed against the dismissal of his claim for damages.
Held
The appeal was dismissed.
Although there was no purpose-built handrail attached to the steps, there had been no accidents by way of falling from these steps from a fleet of 760 rigid lorries over a 20 year period, nor had any driver expressed concern over the safety of the steps. Therefore there was no need for the company to carry out a risk assessment on the steps or to provide training to its employees on how to use the steps as the need to take care was obvious.
What can we learn?
- This case is helpful to defendant employers. An employer will not be liable for an injury sustained by their employee in the course of their employment if the injury arose from a situation where the need to take particular care when performing an action was obvious
- Interestingly the claim was not pursued in respect of it being a breach of Reg. 4 of PUWER which imposes a duty upon employers to ensure that work equipment is suitable. Recent case law has held that liability under Reg. 4 will only be avoided where the accident occurred due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond the employer's control. It seems the circumstances may have been sufficient to breach this duty. However, going forward, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 removes civil liability for non-negligent breach of regulations for causes of action arising on or after 1 October 2013
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