Our client suffered a facial injury during the course of his employment with a major supermarket chain. He was referred to Thompsons through his union, USDAW.

The background

Our client had been employed as a warehouse operative with the supermarket chain for seven years. He worked at a distribution centre in Livingstone. As part of his role he had to pick groceries, pack cages and then load them into HGV trailers for delivery to store.

On the day of his workplace accident in July 2017, our client had been loading an overfilled cage onto a trailer. In order to get the cage on board, he needed to remove items from the top. As he attempted to remove a multipack of canned dog-food, the pack sprang loose and struck our client on the face.

The consequences

Our client suffered a deep laceration to his nose which bled profusely. He was taken to hospital.

The wound caused residual scarring, pain and suffering, and our client was forced to take 5-6 days off work.

Our client considered his employer to be at fault for the accident as staff were actively encouraged to make sure that goods were "crammed in" to the cages, thus making them difficult to level and then load.

Thompsons Solicitors in Scotland intimated an accident at work claim with the employer under regulations 4 and 12 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998; regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and regulation 10 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. We also pursued the claim based upon the defender's vicarious liability for its employees actions in the negligent overloading of the cage.

The settlement

The defender denied liability, however, after Thompsons intimated the claim through the court, settlement was agreed on 19 February 2021 in the sum of £1,500.