Engineer who claimed he suffered a lung injury from inhaling chemicals settles action

A maintenance engineer who claimed he suffered a serious lung injury after inhaling chemicals during the course of his work has settled his High Court damages action.

Martin Kinsella, aged 46, from the Rath, Swords, Co Dublin, brought proceedings arising out of an incident that occurred on July 25, 2015, when he claimed he was overcome with fumes from a chlorine drum, used to treat a water unit in the facility where he worked.

His action was against food product manufacturer Ballymaguire Foods Limited, which operates the premises at Rathmooney, Lusk, Co Dublin, where the incident occurred, and his then-employer Country Crest, which is involved in the sale of agricultural materials.

He claimed the defendants were negligent, in breach of their duty of care towards him, and failed to provide him with a safe place to work.

It was also claimed that the defendants had allowed a dangerous chemical to be mislabelled and stored in an inappropriate location, and that the chemical was not stored and labelled in accordance with stipulated safety requirements.

The claims were denied and in their defence, the defendants said that the injuries were caused by Mr Kinsella’s own acts. Mr Kinsella, the defendants claimed was not entitled to any damages.

The matter was before Mr Justice David Keane.

Today, John Healy, SC for Mr Kinsella, said the matter had been settled.

The court was told that the parties had agreed to make a costs order in favour of Mr Kinsella, and that liability had been agreed at 50-50 between the plaintiff and the defendants over the incident.

The court heard Mr Kinsella began working as a maintenance engineer for Crest at Ballymaguire Foods premises in Lusk in 2008 where he was responsible for day-to-day maintenance operations.

On the date of the accident, he reported for work at 4am. A client had sought an audit of the facility and he was asked to make sure all plant in the production of relevant products were in perfect working condition.

He claimed he was required to make sure the plant's water system was functioning.

He claimed was in the process of topping up a chlorine solution doser container, which is used to treat water in a storage unit in the plant with a chlorine solution, when the incident occurred.

This was a job he had done every three months for some years but on this occasion, there was a violent chemical reaction, he alleged.

As a result of the reaction, he fell down and was overcome with fumes, but managed to leave the room where the machinery is stored.

He claimed he was immediately violently sick, and his body temperature rose. He reported the accident to management.

He continued working over the following weeks but felt unwell for some time afterwards. He claimed he was unable to work and when driving home, felt faint and bumped his jeep off a ditch.

He eventually required treatment at a hospital, due to his pains, aches, bulging eyes, shakes, headaches, and a sore throat. He was eventually referred to a poison centre for treatment.

He claimed he has had health problems for some time and was unable to return to his former job.

His injuries have interfered with his quality of life, his ability to carry out everyday activities and his relationship with his family, it was claimed.

He takes extensive medication, is very sensitive to aerosols, cigarette smoke, perfume, and his sleep remains disturbed.

The defendants denied they had been negligent, and said that Mr Kinsella was the author of his own misfortune.

They claimed Mr Kinsella had failed to exercise any adequate care for his own safety and had failed to follow the training he was given in how to correctly mix chemicals.