Deputy Head of Personal Injury, James Marwick instructed by Ellie Jarvis of DWF, acted for West Midlands Police in a claim brought against it by a former project manager.
The claimant alleged that she had developed severe lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) because of excessive mouse work in the course of work as a process mapper on a major project. She brought a six-figure-claim seeking extensive damages for loss of earnings.
Her case included allegations that WMP had imposed a workload which meant she had no choice but to work excessive hours and repeated 12-hour shifts. This raised issues as to employer obligations where work was carried out remotely from home at times. There was expert evidence at trial on medical causation with WMP’s expert asserting that the development of tennis elbow was more than likely constitutional. The trial raised issues as to the nature and scope of the employer’s duty of care post-October 2013 in a work related upper limb disorder case.
HHJ Smith found that work was not excessive as alleged. It did not fall out of the norm for process mapping work. The claimant had accepted in cross examination that her time sheets did not evidence successive 12-hour long shifts as she had alleged. The Judge rejected her oral evidence that the time sheets had been computer generated and found the claimant to be an unreliable witness. The Judge found that cross-examination of the claimant’s expert had established deficiencies in his evidence and that the evidence of WMP’s expert, Professor Giddens, was to be preferred. In the circumstances, a technical failure under the underlying regulations to produce a risk assessment was not causative of injury and liability was not established. It was not maintained by the claimant after evidence that an individual specific risk assessment ought to have been undertaken. The claim failed.
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A copy of the judgment is here.