Bhatt v Fontain Motors, [2010] EWCA Civ 863
Citation: Bhatt v Fontain Motors, [2010] EWCA Civ 863
Rule of thumb: What happens if you fall off a ladder as an employee? As a general rule this is a claim because ladders should generally be footed if an employee is using them.
Judgment:
The facts of this case were that an employee used a ladder to gain access to a loft, and this ladder was un-footed. The pursuer had been trained only to use a ladder when it was footed, but the reality in the workplace was that people routinely used ladders without them being footed. As this practice had developed it was held that this was a breach of the regulations and the pursuer successfully obtained damages, ‘The breaches of the Regulations found by the judge (and rightly so found) meant that the claimant was exposed to a risk to which he should not have been exposed. It is no answer to say that the accident would have been avoided if the instructions for use of the ladder had been strictly followed. The claimant’s departure from the prescribed practice was precisely the sort of departure invited by this lengthy, complex and makeshift system. The very likelihood of such a departure reinforces the need for a safe means of access to have been provided’
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