The claimant, Mr Gillespie, suffered a crushing injury to his arm whilst working at night as a tunnel miner. The injury was sustained when a skip that stood on a four-wheeled cart moved and trapped his forearm. The accident left the claimant fit only for light and medium occupations and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive illness and alcoholism.
*Full case details Gillespie vs McFadden McManus Construction Limited and another, 21 July 2003, High Court, Queen's Bench Division, Judgment of Mr Justice MacKay
The defendant employer admitted primary liability, but argued that the claimant was contributorily negligent in failing to notice that the defendant's failure to comply with its duty, and that this had put him in a difficult or dangerous position.

Reference

The defendant was at fault both at common law and under the relevant statutes. The claimant was not at fault for failing to notice that his employer's failure put him in a difficult or dangerous position.

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Postscript

The defendant, via its expert sought to argue that the claimant, as part of his experience as a miner, would instinctively absorb whether a skip loaded onto a bogey (the four-wheeled cart) was out of balance or not. The judge rejected this on the grounds that the failure of the defendant to ensure the stability of the cart by the usual method of fitting small brackets to its corners to retain the skip made the situation an unusual one, which the claimant could not be expected to deal with in reliance upon his experience. The judge did, however, express some perplexity as to how he was meant to judge such evidence, and relied upon the defendant's failure to discharge its burden of proof in relation to alleged contributory negligence.