Sam's Back Injury at a Distribution Centre

The background

Sam* was 30 and working at a Woolworths distribution centre, packing large pallets. Away from work, the gym, the beach and sport were a regular part of his week.

His back injury took all three of them away from him.

What happened

In around October 2018, Sam was packaging a large pallet when he felt pain in his lower back. He had pain and symptoms in his lumbar spine from that point on.

He went back to work because of money, not because he had recovered. In approximately October 2019, performing similar duties to the ones that had injured him the first time, he was injured again. His injuries needed a lumbar spine fusion.

Two organisations had direct supervision and control of the work he was doing: Woolworths, which owned the distribution centre, and a separate entity, which was his employer. Our case was that between them they had provided an unsafe system of work.

The legal challenge

Because control of the site and control of the worker sat with two different companies, a claim could be brought against both — Woolworths as the occupier and controller of the premises, and Sam's employer.

Neither accepted it. Woolworths denied liability. His employer raised an allegation of contributory negligence, putting part of the responsibility back onto Sam.

How we helped

Running one claim against two defendants is harder than running two claims. Each can point at the other, and any settlement has to work for both of them at once.

We built the case on expert evidence — on the system of work itself, and on the injuries it caused — commenced proceedings, and kept going after mediation failed to produce a result.