Monash University ordered to pay security worker $275,000 after puddle fall
A WOMAN has won a $275,000 payout after stumbling in a puddle and rolling her ankle at a Monash University campus carpark seven years ago.
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A WOMAN has won a $275,000 payout after stumbling in a puddle and rolling her ankle seven years ago.
Sheila Savage, 48, fell crossing a median strip while walking from a Monash University campus carpark to the building housing the security control room where she worked.
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“I stepped into a puddle not knowing that the ground was uneven underneath it, and rolled my ankle,” Ms Savage told the County Court.
At first it appeared to be a minor strain, but she said every day was now a challenge.
She told the court she lived in constant pain. In winter, it was so excruciating she did not want to leave home; in warm weather, her ankle swelled, making movement difficult.
In the shower, the spray of water on her foot felt “like someone throwing nails at it”; in bed, she slept with her ankle over the side so that the sheets did not touch it.
She told the court she can now walk only a short distance with the use of a walking stick and moon boot, and can’t play with her son, 13.
She described her mental state as negative, depressed and anxious, saying that losing her ability to work, cook, clean or garden made her sad.
Internal university emails discussing Ms Savage’s fall acknowledged a lot of water sat on the crushed limestone-style path crossing the median strip when it rained, creating small 1 to 2cm-deep “depressions/potholes” and that other people had also tripped or fallen because of “ruts” that had formed in the surface.
The crossing — which, being used by 5000 people a day, was the campus’s busiest — was “very quickly” concreted, at a cost of $2500, after Ms Savage’s fall.
The court heard Ms Savage underwent arthroscopic surgery a year after her fall but her condition worsened and she developed a chronic pain disorder.
Ms Savage’s GP said it was now unlikely she would recover, with rehabilitation and prescription drugs failing to alleviate either her pain or incapacity.
Her weight has ballooned from 95kg to 145kg and she now also suffers pain in her lower spine.
Her husband told the court that his wife had been the breadwinner and “very active”.
“We used to always do a lot of stuff together. Now we do not do anything together because she cannot do anything,” he said.
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Judge Frank Saccardo ruled the crossover had been unsafe and Monash was liable to compensate Ms Savage, who had not contributed to her injury.
Given the prior history of falls at the crossing, that there was no suggestion Ms Savage was hurrying and the fact she was wearing steel-capped work boots, Judge Saccardo found she had not contributed to her injury.
He said the “potentially trifling injury” initially sustained by Ms Savage had “a catastrophic effect upon her life and lifestyle” and caused “an extremely significant level of disability” and ordered Monash to pay her $275,000 damages, with costs still to be determined.