A woman who suffered substantial ligament damage in a workplace accident has had her claim for slipping on a pallet at work settled out of court.
Katrin Weiss from Intake, South Yorkshire, worked as the operations manager for Bereco Ltd – a window frame and door manufacturer based in Rotherham – when her accident happened in early 2011.
Katrin had been asked to stay behind after work and assist with the despatch of a delivery, as a colleague was absent due to illness. Many of the packages had been loaded when the 36-year-old arrived at the loading bay, but several bundles of frames and handles remained.
So that she could get to them, Katrin climbed atop a pallet which had been covered with a sheet of plywood which concealed the edges of the pallet and, as she clambered back down, slipped and fell – sustaining ligament damage to one ankle and badly twisting the other.
Katrin was taken to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, where doctors inserted two screws into her ankle to help stabilise the injury. However, the ligaments failed to heal and Katrin had to have two more operations to insert a metal frame into her ankle joint to assist her mobility.
Katrin sought legal advice and, due to the fact that her employers had failed to provide her with any safety training before allowing her to assist with the despatch, it was considered that Katrin had a claim for slipping on a pallet at work which was worth her while to pursue.
In her action, Katrin claimed for the pain and suffering she had experienced at the time of her accident, her loss of amenity throughout her recovery and her loss of income while she was unable to work for fifteen months.
Katrin also included in her injury compensation claim for slipping on a pallet at work compensation for the five-and-a-half-inch scar that will remain on her leg and the fact that she is likely to suffer a degenerative form of arthritis in the future.
After an internal investigation, Bereco Ltd admitted their liability for Katrin´s injuries and agreed an out-of-court settlement of £30,000 in settlement of Katrin´s claim for slipping on a pallet at work.