A man told a judge he himself was the “forklift” used for lifting and stacking boxes of heavy hospital records that he claimed had caused a serious injury to his back.
Natu Daniel Rus, who sued Iron Mountain Ireland and recruitment agency Team Obair for €60,000 damages, told Judge James O’Donohoe in the Circuit Civil Court on Wednesday that he was expected to lift weights of between 30kg and 45kg.
When the judge suggested a forklift would have been needed to lift 45kg, Rus, of Warrenstown Lawn, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, replied: “I was the forklift.”
Rus (41), a general operative with Iron Mountain Limited in its warehouse at Damastown Industrial Estate, Dublin 15, and recruited for them by Team Obair, Grattan Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8, told the court he had never been trained by Iron Mountain in the proper and safe way of lifting heavy boxes.
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After conceding to defence barrister James Francis O’Donnell that he had worked with another company which had involved similar lifting, he was reminded by counsel that he had provided Iron Mountain, at interview, with a manual lifting card indicating he had already been trained in manual handling.
Rus told Judge O’Donohoe he had developed back pain during June 2023 due to repeatedly lifting and racking hundreds of boxes. He had taken a total of eight days’ holiday around that time but had not sought medical treatment. He said he had reported the injury to the company, which O’Donnell said company witnesses would deny.
O’Donnell, who appeared with Alma Whelan of MacSweeney Solicitors, Galway, closely questioned Rus on why he had not attended a doctor or accident and emergency department for treatment of his back for several months following his alleged painful injury and only after having been let go by Iron Mountain.
Rus said he had always held out hope that the pain would go away.
Rus’s counsel told the court the case had been settled and could be struck out with no order.
