In the High Court case of Lawless v Keatley, it was held by Justice Twomey that a racehorse trainer was not liable for a back injury allegedly suffered by a stable hand when using a wheelbarrow in a “most unorthodox” manner.
The plaintiff, who in March 2016 was working as a stable hand for Mr Keatley, claimed he sustained injury during his employment when he was emptying a heavy wheelbarrow of soiled hay into a dungstead, a three-sided structure with concrete walls and a concrete floor.
Judgment
At trial, the plaintiff called engineering evidence that sought to demonstrate the emptying of the wheelbarrow on an upward incline constituted an "unsafe system of work”. However the Judge commented the court did not require an engineer to tell someone they should empty a wheelbarrow on a flat surface rather than an incline. Commenting that this was “basic common sense”, Judge Twomey ruled that an employer is not liable for “everyday unfortunate mishaps” to employees that could as easily happen at home.
The Judge also commented it was “curious, to say the least”, the claim of injury when emptying the wheelbarrow on an upward incline only surfaced six years after the claim issued in 2017 and only after an engineer took photos showing inclines of material in the dungstead operated by a different racehorse trainer.
In dismissing the claim, Justice Twomey noted that such claims should be approached with “common sense and a degree of scepticism”. This serves as an important precedent when relying on the fundamental concept of common sense in the defence of employer liability personal injury claims in Ireland.
