MSF Sugar workplace death case returns to Cairns court after appeal win

MSF Sugar may be prosecuted again over the 2019 death of crane dogger Brett Quinn who was electrocuted at work, after a Cairns Judge ruled the original case should not have been dismissed by a lower court.

Brett Quinn died at work in 2019 after the drane he was working on passed too close to overhead powerlines. Picture: ABC

MSF Sugar may face a new prosecution over the powerline electrocution death in 2019 of a crane dogger laying railway line for MSF after a Cairns judge ruled the Workplace Health and Safety case should not have been dismissed in a lower court.

The court was told MSF Sugar employee, crane dogger Brett Allen Quinn died at work on July 28, 2019 on Irwin Access Road, at Little Mulgrave, a public road next to an MSF worksite.

At the time, he was holding a section of railway line, suspended from a 25-tonne crane that came too close to overhead powerlines, electrocuting him.

His employer, MSF Sugar was charged two years later with industrial manslaughter, and breaching its duty under the Electrical Safety Act.

The industrial manslaughter charge was dropped after a hearing.

And a magistrate found MSF had ‘no case to answer’ in relation to the electrical safety charge after the company successfully argued against changes being made to the original charge.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland prosecutors have successfully appealed elements of a magistrate’s decision, which saw charges dismissed against MSF Sugar over the electrocution death of a worker in 2019.

The changes proposed by the WHS prosecutor focused on the company’s alleged failure to identify and manage risks and hazards along the nearby public road.

Lawyers for MSF Sugar and Workplace Health and Safety argued about the definition of ‘worksite’, the responsibilities of the employer given the death happened on a public road, and whether or not a risk assessment expert could be called in the hearing.

The presiding magistrate did not allow the Work Health and Safety prosecutor to amend the charge to include the additional information and the case was ultimately dismissed.

Workplace Health and Safety appealed against the Magistrate’s decision to dismiss the complaint and Judge Dean Morzone ruled this month that the case be sent back to the Cairns Magistrates Court for rehearing before a different magistrate.

Judge Dean Morzone KC has allowed 14 days for the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland prosecutor to amend and file new particulars of a charge. Picture: Brendan Radke

He allowed 14 days for the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland prosecutor to amend and file the particulars of the charge.

“The prosecutor (in the original case) applied to amend the particulars to include considerations of knowledge, identification, assessment, and management of the risk posed by the nearby powerlines along the road adjacent to the worksite,” Judge Morzone explained in his judgement.

“However, the learned magistrate refused the application, finding the particulars “ambiguous, unclear, and inconsistent with the factual case.”

“In my respectful opinion the prosecution’s case is not confined to the respondent’s business activities within the ‘worksite’ but was pleaded to extend to ‘the area alleged where the work was to be conducted’, which includes the adjacent road area ‘in or near’ the overhead electric powerlines.”

MSF employee Brett Quinn was electrocuted on July 28 2019 while working as a dogman at Little Mulgrave South of Cairns. PICTURE: ANNA ROGERS

Judge Morzone also ruled that the expert risk assessment evidence that Workplace Health and Safety sought to call was relevant and should also have been allowed.

Judge Morzone did not order a retrial but “remitted (it) to the Magistrates Court Cairns Registry for case management and rehearing before a different magistrate in due course.”

Originally published as MSF Sugar workplace death case returns to Cairns court after appeal win