Weightmans were instructed to represent the Second Defendant. The Claimant, who was employed by the First Defendant, as a maintenance engineer, was working on a weight labelling machine situated in the Second Defendant’s premises.
As the Claimant was leaning over the back of a printer to unscrew a screw using a handheld screwdriver, he found that the screw was quite tight and, as he applied a little pressure in order to turn the screw, a small piece of metal detached from the machine and went into the Claimant’s eye. Liability was denied by both Defendant’s but still proceeded to trial where the Judge dismissed the claim against both Defendant’s.
The claim was dismissed against First Defendant because the accident was not reasonably foreseeable and just a freak occurrence. The claim was dismissed against the Second Defendant because there was no positive case of negligence pleaded. The Claimant’s counsel submitted that they simply joined the Second Defendant because the First Defendant denied having over control the factory premises but confirmed that they did not allege that the Second Defendant did anything wrong.
We considered the issue of costs with Counsel and our specialist in house costs team. Unfortunately, the prospect of recovering costs against the Claimant or the First Defendant were low. The Claimant had the protection of QOCS. In relation to pursuing the First Defendant, unfortunately, they did not bring us into the proceedings and the reason we were brought in because it was our work equipment. That is not unreasonable, and they did not really have much other choice. Whilst, we did not make a recovery on costs in defending the action, we made considerable savings for the client.