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Injured man in damages claim

May 23, 2008 | Staff | Spalding Today

An apprentice joiner, devastatingly injured in a building site accident, is claiming massive damages from the Market Deeping contractor which he says did not do enough to protect him. Acrabuild has denied all liability in the case brought against it by David John Duncan, who was just 26 and learning his trade when he suffered spinal injuries in a fall which threatened to leave him paralysed.

London's High Court heard he was at first almost totally paralysed and, although he made a remarkable recovery after enduring major spinal surgery, his mobility and balance remain badly affected and his lawyers say he will be forever handicapped on the labour market.

His QC Mr David Westcott said Mr Duncan was working in the construction of a bungalow at Casewick Stud in Uffington when disaster struck in April 2005.

In order to get into the roof space to do a measuring job, he clambered onto a trestle scaffold and pulled himself up by grasping a rafter, but on the way down bumped his head and fell onto the trestle and then the floor below.

Mr Duncan, of Parkfield Road, Oakham, who was apprenticed to his brother Neil at the time, is claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages from Acrabuild, the main contractor on site, because he claims it did not do enough to protect his health and safety.

Acrabuild says Mr Duncan was not employed by the firm and claims he was "on a frolic of his own" when he fell.

It says it was not "reasonably foreseeable" that Mr Duncan would take such an "obvious risk" by climbing into the roof void as he did.

However, Mr Westcott argued Acrabuild had not done everything that was "reasonably practicable" to protect Mr Duncan, who he described as a "conscientious" worker.

He claimed there was a lax atmosphere on the site and safety instructions had not been disseminated to workmen,

On Tuesday, after a three-day hearing, Deputy High Court Judge Ronald Walker QC reserved his decision on the case until a later date.