Roofer who fell from roof on first day in job gets settlement of €1.5m

A man who was unemployed for a long period before getting work as a roofer has secured €1.5 million in settlement of his High Court action over a serious head injury suffered in a fall from a roof on his first day at work.

Paul O’Brien (50), of Ballymote, Glenealy, Co Wicklow, fell while trying to descend from a roof onto a ladder set up on wet timber decking, the court was told.

Through his wife Sandra, he sued his employer, Sean Lyons, of Ninth Lock Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, as a result of the fall on July 18th, 2012.

He alleged failure to provide a safe place of work and failures to have adequate scaffolding, a raised work platform or suitable roofing ladders to enable him to carry out his work safely.

Ladder
It was also alleged the ladder used to descend from the roof was unsafe and unfit for that purpose, and the combination of an alleged unsuitable ladder and wet decking presented a treacherous means of exit from the roof.

Richard Kean SC, for Mr O’Brien, said his client had had an impeccable work history in sawmills and in 2005 joined the construction industry at the height of the building boom.

The subsequent downturn meant Mr O’Brien was out of work, but in July 2012 he took up a four-month contract as a roofer, counsel said. He was on his first day in the job and working on the high-pitch roof of a house in Bray when the accident occurred.

It had started to rain and their case was that the ladder to the roof was positioned on a timber decking floor, that it slipped and and had not been fastened in any way.

Had the case gone to hearing, the defendant would have claimed contributory negligence on the part of Mr O’Brien who, it was alleged, was carrying hammers at the time of his fall, counsel also said.

Memory loss
Mr O'Brien had suffered a very significant head injury and his short-term memory was now appalling and he would not work again, counsel said. Prior to the accident, Mr O'Brien had enjoyed hill walking and rock climbing. Mrs O'Brien had taken a two-year sabbatical from her job to care for her husband.

Approving the settlement, Ms Justice Mary Irvine said she sympathised with the position of the O’Brien family.