Boyes Turner’s personal injury solicitors secured a £250,000 settlement and funded rehabilitation for a 63-year-old man who suffered multiple Lisfranc (midfoot) fractures whilst working for a boat hire company on an unsafe stretch of riverbank. Our client was employed as boat hire crew and was required to help customers embark onto hired boats from a pontoon beside the riverbank. The wooden pontoon was only long enough to provide mooring for one boat. The other boats were moored alongside the riverbank, which sloped steeply down to the water and was overgrown with foliage. Our client was helping a group of customers board two boats. The first group boarded the boat which was moored at the pontoon. As the first boat moved away and the remaining group of customers waited, our client went to bring the second boat to the pontoon. This involved walking along the riverbank whilst pulling the boat by its mooring line towards the pontoon. As he stepped closer to the water’s edge to walk between the riverbank and a tree which leaned over the river from the riverbank, he stepped into an indentation in the riverbank which was obscured by foliage. He slipped and fell into the water. Riverbank slipping accident causes multiple Lisfranc (midfoot) fractures The slipping accident caused our client to suffer multiple fractures to the bones in his foot, including a complex Lisfranc fracture dislocation/subluxation of the left midfoot joints with associated fractures of the medial cuneiform, the intermediate cuneiform, lateral cuneiform, and a small fracture of the cuboid. He underwent multiple private surgical procedures, including realignment of the dislocations, internal fixations with plates and screws, and midfoot fusions, and then needed further remedial surgery involving partial metalwork extraction, fusion of the first tarsometatarsal joint and realignment. The accident and injury caused him to suffer from major depression, with symptoms of low mood and self-esteem, anxiety and sleep disturbance. Making a claim after injury caused by accident at work We helped our client pursue a workplace injury claim for compensation from his employer. We served a letter of claim, based on the employer’s failure to provide a safe working environment and system of work, and failure to prevent the foreseeable injury to our client. Proper risk assessment should have led to action being taken to highlight the edge of the riverbank and the indentation, such as by cutting back the foliage at the edge of the riverbank, laying non-slip matting to demarcate a safe walkway, or filling or covering the indented area. The boat hire company initially denied liability for the accident, but subsequently admitted liability, subject to allegations of contributory negligence. They made an early settlement offer of £55,000, which we advised our client to reject. Claim leads to funded rehabilitation and compensation We requested that the employer’s insurers work with us to prioritise our client’s rehabilitation and recovery. They agreed to provide rehabilitation funding under the Rehabilitation Code. This enabled us to appoint a case manager to prepare an immediate needs assessment (INA) and provide coordinated rehabilitation for our client, which included physiotherapy, orthotics and psychological support. Our client was semi-retired from his former, high-income career, but was working with the boat hire company to keep him busy whilst considering further career and working options. His injury and its impact on his mobility and mental health limited his ability to take up various job offers that he had received, and prevented him from continuing his multiple remunerative sidelines or former hobbies. We served medical experts’ reports and other evidence supporting our client’s schedule of loss on the defendant, alongside an offer to settle, to encourage negotiations. When the defendant failed to respond or engage in negotiations, we issued proceedings. This led to the defendant making a £250,000 settlement offer, which our client accepted. If you have been seriously injured in a road collision or an accident at work, and you would like to find out more about funded rehabilitation or making a claim, you can talk to one of our experienced solicitors, free and confidentially, by contacting us.
