A STUD farm labourer who injured his foot as he got down from a tractor has secured €86,000 damages at the High Court after a judge found he was 50 per cent responsible for the incident.
Mr Justice Seán Ryan initially assessed damages at €172,500 after finding the owners of Baroda Stud farm in Co Kildare at the time of the incident in March 2008 were in breach of their statutory duty to provide safe equipment and to ensure it was maintained in that condition.
However, he halved that sum due to 50 per cent contributory negligence by Thomas Fanning (62) in relation to the incident.
Mr Fanning, Eyre Street, Newbridge, Co Kildare, had sued Philip and Jane Myerscough, at the time the owners of Baroda Stud, Newbridge, as a result of the incident on March 4th, 2008.
Mr Fanning sustained a fracture to his left foot and was left in plaster. He claimed he suffered chronic leg pain afterwards.
Mr Justice Ryan said Mr Fanning was unable to return to work and that he had hoped to continue working until he was 70 years of age.
In his judgment, he said Mr Fanning had been getting down from a tractor and had one foot on the ground when he claimed the tractor door swung suddenly against him and he lost balance, falling to the ground.
Mr Fanning’s consulting engineer had acknowledged the labourer alighted from the tractor the wrong way, the judge said. Instead of turning to face the cab of the vehicle and retreating down the steps while holding the safety handle provided, Mr Fanning walked forward out of the cab, he noted.
This meant it was difficult if not impossible for Mr Fanning to keep hold of the handle and made it most unlikely that he did so, the judge found.
It was obvious the impact force of the tractor door would have been light, he added.
Mr Fanning knew of the loose door and the correct way to go down steps, Mr Justice Ryan added.
The situation meant Mr Fanning was in a precarious unbalanced position such that a slight blow was enough to knock him to the ground.
“I believe an experienced man like Mr Fanning might well have considered it to be insultingly patronising if he had been told how to get down out of a tractor.”
Mr Justice Ryan noted that it was not disputed by the defendants that a slamming door on the tractor could have caused Mr Fanning to lose balance and fall to the ground, and the debate focused almost entirely on the condition of the restraining strut on the left-hand door of the tractor cab.
The judge found the strut was defective at the time of the incident, and that Mr Fanning had mentioned it to his superior, Tim Woodlock.
Neither Mr Woodlock nor Mr Fanning thought it was a serious danger, he said.