Summers - v - Justica Cas Limited

Plaintiff Sharon Anne Summers
Job title Supervisor (SOC 2000: 4131)
Task description Keyboard use: adding machine and clerical tasks
Injury Right Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Occupational Cramp
Defendant(s) Justica Cas Ltd (SIC 2007: N82.91/1)
Court(s) Birmingham County
Case No. BM 9312925
Date 11 Sep 1997
Judge(s) Mr Recorder Barnes
For Plaintiff
All Plaintiffs Sharon Anne Summers
Solicitor Cox & Hodgetts
Counsel Mr Cliff
Non-Medical expert(s) Mr Pooley
Medical expert(s) Dr Rundle (Consultant Phsyician)
For Defendant
Solicitor Wragge & Co
Counsel Mr Russell
Non-Medical expert(s) Mr Graham J Coleman (Ergonomics)
(Not called)
Medical expert(s) Mr Murray H Matthewson (Orthopaedic Surgery)
Outcome
Judgment for: Defendant
Injury found: No
Work related: No
Breach of Statutory Duty: No finding
Defendant negligent: No
Damages
General:
Special:
Other:
TOTAL:
Observations
 
References
 
References to and/or Interpretations of Regulations and HSE Guidance Documents
There is reference in this County Court Judgment to "the literature from the Health & Safety Executive" but there are no references to any specific guidance document or to any Health and Safety Regulations.

In his Judgment of the 11th September 1997, at C on page 12, Mr Recorder Barnes says:

[The non-medical expert instructed on behalf of the Plaintiff] agreed that in 1990 the literature from the Health & Safety Executive did not specifically draw attention to any link between upper limb disorders and VDU operators, and I have that report provided to me. Similarly, he said that in the 1983 report from the Health & Safety Executive there was again no specific link drawn between VDU operators and upper limb disorders .....

At D on page 38 of the Judgment, Mr Recorder Barnes says:

It is right to say that [the Ergonomics Expert instructed on behalf to the Defendant] says from about 1985 onwards .... it was widely appreciated that particularly high risks were run by operators whose work involved intense keyboard activity, and that equipment constraints on posture were associated with increased risks. That is the view of an expert in these matters, but neither of the Health & Safety Executive reports refer to that problem. It does not appear that any complaints were ever addressed to management about the VDU or the key input factor, and I do not find that it was foreseeable at the time with which I am concerned that the employer should have foreseen a risk of injury. What might have been foreseen by an expert would not necessarily have been reasonably foreseen by an employer.

V1.01


Click below for other cases in similar categories
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome | Focal Dystonia | Keyboard use: (not DSE) | SOC Major Group 4 | SIC Major Classification N

Amend or add to this case | Add a new case report

Last updated: 16/10/2009