Fishing Skipper Wins $750,000 Damages

[ryhno]

A FISHING skipper has successfully landed $750,000 in damages from his former employer after his left hand was mangled in a boating accident.

Glenn Ronald Hunter, 49, successfully sought damages from New Fishing Australia Pty Ltd after his less dominant left hand was crushed between a winch and a rope in a boating accident in October 2001.

In a Townsville Supreme Court judgment handed down by Justice Keiran Cullinane today, he awarded Mr Hunter $751,668.05 in damages for loss of income in past employment, future employment, pain killers, surgery costs and financial assistance for "mowing a lawn".

The court heard Mr Hunter left school at age 16 in Western Australia to become a prawn fisherman and spent until March 2005 in the fishing industry.

Despite no qualifications in any other area, he was earning a gross annual income of about $140,000.

In his judgment, Justice Cullinane said Mr Hunter's accident occurred in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Territory waters when he was holding a rope on a winch which was held there by a cleat.

"The winch was stopped but began to move and as it rotated the plaintiff's left hand became crushed between the winch and the rope," he said.

"Each finger of the hand was caught in the rope, with the main injury being sustained to the left index finger."

The court heard the injury required Mr Hunter to have his left index finger amputated, whilst other fingers required surgery.

"The plaintiff returned to work for the defendant in early 2002 and found considerable difficulty in performing the necessary tasks because of the constant pain he was suffering," Justice Cullinane said.

"The hard physical labour required of a skipper during the season was, he found, not something he was able to cope with."

The court suggested easier occupations Mr Hunter may be able to take up until he was 67 years old, such as a car park attendant or storeman, and used the average wage of those jobs to calculate the loss of damages amount.

However Justice Cullinane said he doubted that a man of Mr Hunter's "enterprise" would ever be satisfied in such roles.

"Overall he has lost the capacity to engage in the only work that he has for all intents and purposes ever engaged in," he said.

"The fact is he is now 49 years old and has no other qualifications. He must be regarded as having a substantial destruction of his earning capacity."

P.s. Congrats Glenn you deserve every cent.

Edited August 25, 2009 by ryhno