Dunnes Stores worker receives €11,000 injury compensation

A Dunnes Stores worker who was injured when a stack of empty crates fell on his foot has had an €8,000 award increased to €11,070 after the supermarket chain lost a High Court appeal.

Store assistant Anthony Fitzsimons (25), Glasanaon Road, Finglas, Dublin, had been awarded €16,070 in the Circuit Court which was halved on the basis of a finding he was 50 per cent responsible for the accident.

Dunnes Stores, who denied negligence and said the accident was not foreseeable, appealed that decision.

In his decision, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said Mr Fitzsimons should have been instructed in the correct way to lift the crates once they were empty and stacked one on top of another.

In assessing damages at €11,070, the judge said Mr Fitzsimons had suffered a nasty injury to his left foot and was out of work for 3½ months.

The court heard Mr Fitzsimons was working in the Dunnes branch at Charlestown Shopping Centre in Finglas on the day of the accident, June 6th, 2011.

He was attempting to lift a stack of plastic crates, of the type used to hold fruit and vegetables, from a trolley to place them on a pallet.

The court heard, once stacked on top of one another, there was only a few millimetres of plastic with which to grip the crates when lifting.

Mr Justice Kearns said there should have been instructions given concerning the maximum number of empty crates a person could safely lift at any one time.