Injured while lifting a box of photocopy paper.  

Wins nearly $240,000 damages 

In the case of Dank v Tabcorp in the Queensland Court of Appeal, it was heard that Ms Dank  was injured at work when she lifted a box of photocopy paper from the floor in her office. 

The court decision was based on the Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, The act current at the time of the incident.  This act has now been replaced as part of the OHS Harmonisation process. 

Ms Dank,  was employed by the defendant as a secretary where she was highly regarded.  Lifting the box was an awkward lift and required her to lean forward and over the box.  She bent forward and down at an angle, picked up the box from the floor, turned as she lifted it to put it on her desk to the left as she was straightening up and “felt a twang in her back”. 

The box weighed about 12.7 kg.  and contained 5 reams of photocopying paper.  She was intending to unpack the box once she had placed it on her desk and store the reams in the cupboard under the photocopier. 

In simple terms it was a twisting lift with the box held at an angle and in this way it exposed the plaintiff to a foreseeable risk of injury. She found the lift “very, very hard” because she couldn’t pick the box up easily. 

Ms Dank had received no training in respect of lifting or lifting techniques, or the storage of the boxes. She was not instructed not to lift the box as she did and she could have moved the box away from the wall and then lifted it in a different way.

In the result the trial judge awarded damages for the components which are now in issue as follows:    past economic loss $ 36,867.60,  interest  $ 9,427.04,  past lost superannuation $ 3,318.08,  future economic loss $112,091.06 and future loss of superannuation $ 10,088.19 

The defendant appealed the decision and lost, having to pay Ms Dank nearly $240,000 for the back injury. 

More:- http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/qld/QDC/2011/2.html