07:00 am, Monday 22 December, 2008

A man whose arm was crushed in a hiab crane accident in 2000, last week won a three-year legal battle for compensation.

The man will now seek more than $150,000 for pain and suffering following the workplace accident.

The Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal overturned two previous court decisions that ruled the 44-year-old’s injuries were not “serious”.

The man was working as a truck driver for a timber company when he was unfolding a crane fitted to the back of his truck. The accident happened when the crane’s arm became detached, falling straight down on his arm.

The Court of Appeal found the man’s right arm was permanently injured – he could not fully flex his forearm at the elbow, he had suffered significant loss of the power grip and there was a high chance he would develop arthritis.

Until last week, other WorkCover claims similar to the injured driver’s were being dismissed based on a County Court decision handed to him three years ago because it was used as a precedent.

Justice Nettle of the Court of Appeal suggested WorkCover disputed the worker’s claim because he did not dwell on his injuries. He said the plaintiff got on with his life, while enduring on-going pain, and managed to start his own bobcat business.

“It would be unfortunate, and in my view wrongheaded, if in future such an applicant were treated less favourably than another who, being of less strength of character, simply resigned himself to his injury,” Justice Nettle said.

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