County Court rules in favour of Genazzano College library worker who hurt her back

A Genazzano College library worker has won her legal fight against the school after she had two spinal surgeries as a result of her injuries from moving heavy books.

The Genazzano worker claimed the school’s previous principal Karen Jebb was negligent by making her sort, lift and carry books despite her existing back injury. Picture: Mark Stewart

A leading Catholic girls’ school has been ordered to pay $350,000 to a library technician who was injured while moving heavy books during Covid lockdowns.

The County Court ruled this week the Genazzano College library worker, who hurt her back while working at the school in 2018 and 2020, was required to undertake unsafe work.

Although Genazzano is insured by WorkSafe, the damning finding is likely to further exacerbate the school’s struggling financial situation, which included losses of $3.8m in 2023 and $3.1m in 2022.

In 2024, the up-market school had 700 students, down from 928 in 2019.

The woman hurt her back while working at Genazzano in 2018 and 2020. Picture: Mark Stewart

The worker, represented by lawyers Arnold, Thomas & Becker, claimed the school’s previous principal Karen Jebb was negligent by making her sort, lift and carry books despite her existing back injury.

Ms Jebb is now the principal of Emmaus College in Vermont South.

In a nine-day County Court jury trial, the school argued the worker was only handling five to ten books an hour which did not amount to “hazardous manual handling”.

However, judge Barbara Myers found the worker was in fact forced to engage in “hazardous manual handling” of “vast quantities of books” despite the school acknowledging she had “significant strength and mobility issues”.

The judge found the library worker was forced to handle vast quantities of books. Picture: iStock

The 2020 injury occurred during Covid lockdowns, when the worker said she was told she had to come onto campus rather than from home or she would lose her job.

The worker told the court she was “put over a barrel” and told to sort and remove the books “lickety-split” despite having no equipment and no staff.

The worker, who had two spinal surgeries as a result of her injuries, was awarded $100,000 for the 2018 injury, including pain and suffering and $250,000 for the 2020 injury.

Judge Myers concluded “there was considerable evidence upon which the jury could find Genazzano liable in both negligence and for breach of the Regulations in relation to the April to June 2020 injury”.

This is despite the school’s lawyers arguing that there was no more than a “mere scintilla of evidence” to sustain such a finding.

WorkSafe and the school initially refused to settle with the worker for $140,000 plus legal costs of $13,500.

Jodie Harris, principal at Arnold Thomas & Becker, who acted for the worker, said it was “very disappointing that a genuinely injured person who suffers injury due to her employer’s negligence, has to be put through the trauma of a protracted legal battle”.

“She was not asking for the world, but wanted fair compensation and recognition for her injury. The jury heard her and awarded just and fair damages,” she said.

The school and WorkSafe were approached for comment.

Genazzano principal Loretta Wholley said it would be inappropriate to comment given that the worker was still employed by the school.

Originally published as County Court rules in favour of Genazzano College library worker who hurt her back