Concrete whiplash payout lost
September 2, 2009

The High Court has dismissed a negligence claim against construction firm Leighton, ruling the company had no common law duty to train sub-contractors to do their job.

That is bad news for concreter Brian Fox who suffered serious head injuries while concrete was being poured during work at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney in March 2003.

Leighton had contracted the firm Downview to do the work. It had in turn sub-contracted concrete pumping to Quentin Still and Jason Cook, who in turn engaged Mr Fox and Warren Stewart for the actual work.

The concreting was successfully concluded but during the clean-up process a pipe whiplashed away from a waste bin, striking Mr Fox to the head and causing serious injuries.

He sued Leighton, Downview and Mr Stewart's employer Warren Stewart Pty Ltd for negligence in the NSW District Court.

However, Leighton and Downview were both cleared of any negligence.

The judge found the accident was caused by the negligence of Mr Still and Mr Stewart, ordering Warren Stewart Pty Ltd to pay Mr Fox damages of $472,562.

But because that company had since been deregistered, Mr Fox was forced to turn to the NSW Court of Appeal, which ordered that Leighton and Downview each pay $472,562 in compensation.

Both companies appealed to the High Court.

After Downview was deregistered, the company's insurer, Calliden Insurance, was substituted.

The High Court unanimously ruled today that neither company was liable for damages.

Leighton was not subject to a duty of care requiring it to provide training to sub-contractors in the safe methods of carrying out their specialised work, the court ruled.

The court found Downview had engaged a competent independent contractor to perform the concrete pumping and that it too had no duty of care requiring provision of safety training.

Sounds like a new term for I just through that guy under the bus.

Safety pays but does not cost.

The most horrific thing I have seen (thank goodness) is an operator loading a 30 footer (pipe) by himself and failed.That pipe ate him alive,perminately disabled.

do they have some sort of workers comp over there to pay medical bills for it being on the job?