Dalby Bio-Refinery Ltd, Nortask ordered to pay $2m over worker’s 10m ladder fall

A worker who fell 10m on to concrete has won more than $2 million, after a court found a ladder structure breached Australian standards.

Dalby Bio-Refinery turns grain into ethanol.

A worker who suffered serious injuries when he fell 10m on to a concrete slab has won more than $2 million, after a court found the ladder structure he slipped from breached Australian standards.

Steven Speziali was employed by civil construction business Nortask on June 15, 2017, when the company was tasked with carrying out repair works at the Dalby Bio-Refinery Limited, the country’s first grain-to-ethanol refinery.

Mr Speziali was working as a rigger and dogger as part of a team repairing the metal flooring of a 14.5m-high silo referred to as The Cyclone which had been damaged by fire.

In a Supreme Court decision published by Justice Melanie Hindman, she found Mr Speziali was following industry standards of maintaining three points of contact as he descended a ladder attached to The Cyclone.

“As Mr Speziali was approximately a third of the way down the top ladder, he placed a foot on a rung (he was unable to recall which foot), suddenly his foot slipped, causing him to lose balance and tumble downward, hitting various parts of the ladder and tower before eventually landing on the concrete below,” Justice Hindman wrote in her judgment.

“Mr Speziali recalled flashes of hitting the inside of the top ladder cage, his back hitting the mid-platform guardrail, his legs then hitting the conveyor tower, before landing on the concrete.

“The next thing he recalled was waking up winded with people around him.”

Justice Hindman said it was later discovered the access system was non-compliant with Australian standards.

She said the distance between the ladder and rear and side guardrails fell short of accepted standards and found that Dalby Bio-Refinery Limited was negligent.

“Identification and rectification of the non-compliant gap between the top ladder steel cage and the mid platform guardrails were the responsibility of DBRL as occupier of the premises,” Justice Hindman said.

“It should not have permitted use of the top ladder (without a fall arrest system) whilst that noncompliance existed.

“The risks of serious injury associated with that noncompliance was readily foreseeable.”

Justice Hindman found DBRL breaches its duty to take precautions against the risk of injury.

She said the noncompliance was “critical and not merely trivial”.

Dalby Bio-Refinery Limited submitted that Mr Sepziali had been contributorily negligent and that Nortask breached its duty of care to the company, but Justice Hindman rejected both of those claims.

“The dominant cause of the plaintiff’s injuries in my opinion was the fact that there was a gap between the bottom of the steel cage to the top ladder and the guardrails for the mid platform which a person, slipping in an uncontrolled way from the top ladder, could fall between to the ground,” she said.

“The responsibility for that state of affairs lies with DBRL, and could not have been readily identified by Nortask.”

The court heard Mr Speziali suffered a 48 per cent loss of whole person function as a result of the fall, and that he still suffered considerable pain, requiring help to perform domestic duties.

Justice Hindman ordered judgment for the plaintiff against Nortask in the sum of $899,254 and against Dalby Bio-Refinery Limited for $1,507,132.

The $899,254 damages were apportioned at 25 per cent to Nortask and 75 per cent to DBRL.