Employer got injured worker to sign ‘I will not claim’ statement after accident

A man recovering from serious injuries after a workplace accident was visited at home by his boss and asked to sign a statement that he would not be “making a claim” over the accident, the High Court heard.

Ben Keevey, who fell 2.9m (9.5feet) from an unguarded stairwell in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, Dublin, told the court that he signed the statement because if he refused he was concerned his boss would stop his wages and he was worried about paying his mortgage and maintaining his young family.

He said his boss, Stephen O’Hagan, MD of specialist heavy lifting contractors, Rigging And Machine Movers Ltd (RAMM), told him the statement was required for insurance purposes.

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Mr Keevey, a 54-year-old father of five, later sued and was this week awarded €228,160 over the accident which occurred in the shopping centre on July 20, 2015. Mr Keevey, a rigging foreman, was sent by RAMM to the shopping centre to cut off lifting bolts or eyes attached to a stairwell in order to lift it and position it where it is finally intended to go.

He sued RAMM and John Sisk & Son Building Contractors who both denied liability and also provided mutual indemnities to each other.

In making the award, Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds found Mr Keevey 20 per cent responsible for the accident taking into account that he was an experienced construction worker with safety training who should have made some enquiry about a guardrail and the availability or otherwise of a safety harness.

The judge said Mr O’Hagan, as supervisor on the site, acted “in complete disregard for the safety of the plaintiff and his colleague in directing them to carry out the task at hand, knowing the extreme dangers of working at heights.”

The judge said Mr Keevey had said he felt ostracised by his colleagues after returning to work six months later and after putting in his claim. He left in 2016 and took up other employment.

Mr O’Hagan in his evidence said he had phoned Sisk to send scaffolders down to replace the guardrail at the stairwell, although the judge said no evidence was called on behalf of Sisk to corroborate this version of events.

The judge said while Mr O’Hagan accepted an employer has a duty to report the accident to the Health and Safety Authority she found his evidence in relation to contact he had made to the HSA about this matter as “simply implausible”.

In relation to the statement he sought from Mr Keevey, she said Mr O’Hagan stated that he was only two years in business and was worried that he would be unable to get insurance renewal. He was further concerned about an adverse effect on his business.

He denied under cross examination that his actions demonstrated a “cover up” from the time of the accident to the lack of investigation and subsequent extraction from Mr Keevey of the statement saying he was not pursuing a claim.

The judge said Mr Keevey suffered life-threatening injuries including multiple skull fractures, orthopaedic and facial injuries. Mr Keevey told the court he continues to have constant knee pain and accepted he is unlikely to continue in this line of employment.

The judge was satisfied that there was very little planning surrounding the works being undertaken at the time of the accident, as well as pressure to wrap up the job.

Mr O’Hagan seemed to “naively believe that he could brush the matter under the carpet” whilst maintaining his insurance cover and avoiding any health and safety authority prosecution. “His dereliction of his duties as an employer is simply baffling, and reprehensible,” she said.

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