Personal injury law

Work injuries

What is the difference between a furniture remover and an ambulanceman?

According to the Court of Appeal, the answer is that where there is a risk of injury that cannot be reasonably avoided, the former can refuse to do the job.

This is worth noting if ever you are thinking of putting a piano in your loft.

The plight of the emergency worker so gloriously (in defeat) demonstrated in White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1998] 3 WLR 1509 was once more set out by Lady Justice Hale in Sussex Ambulance NHS Trust v King [2002] EWCA Civ 953.

While moving a patient down a tight stairway, the claimant's colleague felt pain and loosened his grip leaving Mr King to take the load.

He suffered injury as a result.

At first instance, the judge held that 'more serious consideration' should have been given to calling the fire brigade to assist as no other options were available to move the patient who was in need of 'urgent' though not 'emergency' help.

He found the defendants who were an emanation of the state to be in breach of article 3.2 of the Manual Handling Operations Directive (note, not regulations) in that 'an employer shall take the appropriate organisational measures....

to reduce the risk involved in the manual handling of loads'.

Lady Justice Hale, giving the lead in a unanimous judgment for the defendants, found that the directive did not require all risk to be eliminated.

The only opportunity to reduce the risk not exercised was to call the fire brigade, which in the circumstances was inappropriate owing to, among other things, the one-hour delay in them arriving.

At times an ambulance service will put its workers at risk in order to perform its duty to the public.

Balancing that duty with protecting its workforce is dependant on applying reasonable care to avoid risks.

As Master of the Rolls Lord Denning said in Watt v Hertfordshire County Council 1954 1 WLR 835, 'the saving of life or limb justifies taking considerable risk'.

A sensible decision? Probably.

Some jobs entail risk of injury, such as police officers, firefighters, and steeplejacks.

The expectation of the emergency services is great.

Furniture removers can always down tools.

Returning to Lord Denning in Watt, 'the commercial end to make profit is different to the human end to save life'.

By Simon Allen, Russell Jones & Walker, Sheffield