Hall (Winston) v Glencore Alumina Jamaica Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Judge: BROOKS, J.
• Judgment Date: 24 November 2008
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2008] 11 JJC 2401
• Docket Number: CLAIM NO. 2004 HCV 03020
• Court: Supreme Court (Jamaica)
• Date: 24 November 2008

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA

IN CIVIL DIVISION

CLAIM NO. 2004 HCV 03020

BETWEEN

WINSTON HALL

CLAIMANT

AND

GLENCORE ALUMINA JAMAICA LIMITED

DEFENDANT

NEGLIGENCE - Employer's liability - Casual labourer sustaining lower back injury - Whether worker sustaining injury on previous tour of duty of the employer - Whether job required protective equipment - Whether employer negligent

BROOKS, J

1 Mr. Winston Hall was employed as an hourly-paid casual labourer at Glencore Alumina Jamaica Limited for a number of years. His employment was not continuous but was on a frequent cyclical basis. He ceased working for Glencore in December 2003 after he suffered an injury to his back. He asserts that Glencore is to blame for his injury and he has brought this claim to recover damages for negligence.

2 Glencore, on the other hand, denies that it was negligent in any way. It asserts that if Mr. Hall suffered an injury, as he claims, by lifting with a shovel, some precipitate material, which he was deployed to remove, there is nothing which it could have done to prevent the injury. It says that it took all reasonable care to maintain a safe system of work and perhaps Mr. Hall's injury is as a result of his own fault.

3 The issue to be decided is whether Glencore was negligent in its duty to protect Mr. Hall from injury. The onus is on Mr. Hall to prove Glencore's negligence. He must do so by showing on a balance of probabilities that it failed to provide one or more of the following; safe employees for him to work with, safe equipment, a safe place of work and a safe system of work. (See Wilsons and Clyde Coal Co. Ltd. v English [1938] A.C. 57 at pp. 78 and 86.)

4 Mr. Hall's description of the event is contained in paragraph 15 and 16 of his witness statement:

• "15. While [removing the lime scale], coming up to break time at quarter to 10, I realize that when I go down using the shovel to take up the lime scale and bring it up back, I heard something burst in my back. I then used my hand to feel around my back to see if anything burst.

• 16. I had the shovel in my hand and I had to use it to balance me because I was going to fall. I use my other hand to stretch around my back...."

5 Thereafter he describes the pain he felt and the way he went about getting treatment for it.

6 Both sides agree on the basic facts:

• 1. The job which Mr. Hall was deployed to do required him to use a shovel to remove lime scale precipitate from an...