Michael Khouri suffers horror injury on Toplace building site

Besieged builder Jean Nassif’s company has been found to have been negligent after a worker was impaled on a steel rod after plunging through gaps in the floor at one of its tower block developments.

Confronting photographs have revealed the shocking injuries a teenage worker sustained when he was impaled on a steel rod after plunging through gaps in the floor of one of the tower blocks being built by Jean Nassif’s company Toplace.

They show frantic workmates and firefighters holding up trainee surveyor Michael Khouri, 18, to stop the steel rod going any further through his right thigh after he fell from the second storey.

As he lay screaming in agony, he felt sawdust falling to his eyes as someone was cutting wood to try and cover the hole in the floor while fellow workers shouted for the work to stop, the District Court was told.

Under work site safety laws, work must cease immediately after an accident so SafeWork can properly inspect the scene and Toplace, as head builder and principal contractor of the site, was responsible for the overall safety, Judge William Fitzsimmons ruled on Monday.

Workmates and firefighters helped teenager Michael Khouri after he plunged through an opening in the floor at a Toplace building site.

Solicitor Aleisha Nair said Michael Khouri was lucky to have survived the fall.

The judge said that a so-called penetration cover had only been installed over the site of the fall following Michael’s accident.

Toplace has been found by the District Court to have been negligent.

A judge found Toplace was responsible for the overall safety of the site.

The judgment is the latest blow for the high-flying property king Mr Nassif as he appeals to retain his building licence and his lawyer daughter Ashlyn Nassif, 27, has been charged with dishonestly submitted fake sales contracts to help her dad obtain a $150 million loan to fund his Skyview complex.

She has not yet entered any plea.

Michael Khouri, 24, and his mother Hana. Builder Toplace has been found negligent after Michael fell and was impaled on a steel rod while working at Toplace's Granville tower block site. Picture: Supplied

In court on Monday, Michael’s mum Hana Khouri, 62, broke down as the judgment was read.

“It has been an emotional and stressful time but as a mother, I’m here to protect my children,” Ms Khouri, 62, said outside court.

“In a way the rod saved his life. He could have been killed.”

Michael, now 24, has given up on being a surveyor and is studying health, science and physiotherapy to become a personal trainer and help rehabilitate people with injuries like his.

He continues to have no feeling in the bottom of his right leg after the rod ran through his right thigh and out the other side.

The hole teenager Michael Khouri fell through on a Toplace building site and was impaled on a steel rod in January 2018.

He was at the site at 10-32 East St, Granville — now the home of towers Aurora and Ariel — to mark out gridlines for a bathroom on the second floor when the accident happened in January 2018.

“The floor gave way and I fell,” Michael had told the court in evidence.

“As I was laying there, I noticed a worker above me using a saw. I remember this because the people helping shouted out to stop as dust was falling into my eyes.”

Jean Nassif with wife Nissy.

The court found that Toplace was 35 per cent culpable, the formwork contractor Summit was 45 per cent culpable and Michael’s then-employer Ramsay Surveyors was 20 per cent culpable.

Judge Fitzsimmons described Summit as a “recalcitrant subcontractor” which had repeatedly failed to rectify serious safety breaches including unprotected formwork penetrations, missing staircase handrails and unsafe propping of formwork deck on a tower crane structure.

“Toplace, as head builder and principal contractor, was responsible for the overall safety of the site for those who were working upon it,” the judge said.

“A reasonable person in the Toplace’s position would have exercised a high degree of vigilance and supervision in respect to Summit’s formwork activities, involving constant monitoring on a daily basis, and throughout the course of the workday, of its work.

“Toplace did not implement such precautions.”

The judge awarded Michael Khouri $520,000 in damage against Toplace and Summit and his mother was awarded $$204,104 against Toplace and Summit for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The various businesses had also cross-claimed against each other and Ramsay Surveyors was awarded $231,783 against Toplace and Summit. Toplace was awarded $526,896 against Summit.

The Khouri’s solicitor, Aleisha Nair, said Michael Khouri was lucky to have survived.

“Toplace denied that they were responsible for Mr & Mrs Khouri’s injuries,” Ms Nair of Carroll and O’Dea Lawyers said outside court.

“The NSW District Court found that Toplace knew such penetrations had previously been left open.

“They were obliged to ensure that the penetrations had been covered by their subcontractor, Summit Formwork, and to have denied entry to other workers, such as Mr Khouri, until all penetrations were properly covered and/or barricaded. They failed to do so.”