Slippery business

I wonder what Fred Dibnah would have made of a few scaffolding problems that cropped up recently. Do you remember Fred? He became a star when a television crew shot a series about his work as a steeplejack. He would shin up the side of a factory chimney and plant some rickety scaffold boards and tube 300 feet up in the air. Fred was as happy as Larry but the rest of us had our hearts in our mouth. He was magic.

Lawrence Bullerwell was not so lucky, nor so happy as Fred. He worked for Darlington Insulation Co. His job was to wrap special insulating fibre around a tall cylindrical vessel. Like Fred and his chimney work, Darlington decided scaffold was necessary. But, since scaffold planks are long rectangular lumps of wood and since the vessel was curved, there was no chance of moulding the planks around the curved bits. So the scaffold, once erected, had those triangular-shaped gaps between plank and cylinder. The triangle was 12 inches wide and 9 inches to the apex. Perhaps Bullerwell was not as nimble as Dibnah – but unfortunately his foot slipped through that triangle and it hurt.

He sued Darlington. His lawyers said there was a breach not only of a general duty of care but also of the Construction (Working Places) Regulations 1966. Darlington said, despite the gap, it had taken every step to provide a safe system of work. Well now, said the judge, this gap was large enough to see and small enough to avoid, so the scaffolding was safe. Bullerwell failed in his action. He appealed to the Court of Appeal. It was argued here the action would not have failed if there had been a hole in a pavement or factory floor. Be that as it may, said the Court of Appeal, the judge was not assessing floors or pavements, it was scaffolding and he was quite entitled to decide it was OK. No compensation.

Owen McKane was another user of scaffolding who came a cropper. He sued Corcoran Builders. Actually, it is more accurate to say there was no scaffolding about, so he used a step ladder. He was attaching spacer blocks to reinforcing rods for a new concrete wall. He couldn’t quite reach the top of the bars, so he used the step ladder. He had the sense to ask a mate to hold the ladder steady. But the mate disappeared and McKane fell off and crushed the bones in his heel. He sued Corcoran for failing to provide a safe system of work. No, no, said the judge. McKane’s fall was a genuine accident and there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent an accident happening.

Perhaps Bullerwell was not as nimble as Fred Dibnah – his foot slipped through the gap in the scaffolding and it hurt

The decision was hard to swallow, so McKane appealed. But failed. The evidence was that McKane was not critical of the equipment – he had used a step ladder before on construction sites. Further, no one called experts as to the unsuitability of step ladders. The first judge had established that using a step ladder was suitable and the concrete slab on which it was placed was level. There was no breach by Corcoran. No compensation.

Harry Lainton was perched on a pole ladder, but not for long. He was doing work on Stafford Prison when he leaned to his right to pick up a 30 lb hammer, and kept on going. The ladder had been secured with wire ties, but he said the right-hand tie came adrift. P&N Construction, the defendant, said the ladder was properly secured and Lainton must have overbalanced. The judge looked at the photographs, took out a magnifying glass, and spotted daylight around one of the ties (though no one else had), and concluded that the ladder must have moved. He gave £17 532 compensation for the injury. The construction company appealed. It had later looked at the photograph and said the judge’s analysis was something not open to him to conclude. The Court of Appeal ordered a retrial.