S v. (1) Ensigna Construction & (2) KCI Group

08/01/2026

Summary judgment in a tetraplegia case

Keith Morton KC and Marcus Grant were instructed by Alexander Wormald from Clarkson, Wright & Jakes to represent his client, the Claimant (“S”) who sustained injuries rendering him tetraplegic in a workplace accident.

At the time of the accident S was a 22-year-old Indian national engaged by D2 as a ground worker on a construction site in which D1 was the main site contractor.

S was obliged to drive a dumper truck along a narrow corridor in a school requiring him to duck under overhead lintels leaving him c. 31 cm of clearance above the height of the dumper’s steering wheel. He misjudged one of the lintels, sustaining catastrophic injury.

Both Defendants denied liability blaming S for his own misfortune and each other in the alternative.
S’s legal team used its best endeavours to expedite a timetable to a liability only trial. Before exchange of witness evidence, S applied for summary judgement against both Defendants.

The summary judgment hearing raised a question as to the extent to which failure by the Defendants to comply with the ‘six pack legislation’ following the implementation of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and its delegated legislation resulting in various Approved Codes Of Practice should reflect in findings of common law negligence against them, since Section 69 on the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 removed strict liability in civil litigation for the consequences of breaches of such delegated legislation.

Having resisted liability for 24 months after the accident, both Defendants conceded the issue of primary liability and consented to summary judgment shortly before the hearing in late 2025.