Man who fell from tractor at top stud farm awarded €86k

A 62-YEAR-OLD man who fractured his foot while getting out of a tractor on the stud farm he worked at has been awarded €86,000 in compensation.

The accident happened to Thomas Fanning in March 2008 at the famous Baroda Stud in Co. Kildare, a former home of the Maharaja of Baroda.

He sued Philip Myerscough, a director of Tattersalls Ireland, who bought the 120-acre Newbridge stud for around IR£1.7M in 1998, and his wife Jane Myerscough, a daughter of the late horse trainer Vincent O’brien.

Mr Fanning was getting down from the tractor when the door suddenly swung against him and knocked him to the ground. He suffered a fracture in his left foot, which developed into chronic leg pain. An underlying vascular disease compounded his injury.

He now walks with the aid of a walking stick and has been unable to return to his previous work.

Mr Justice Seán Ryan found that a hydraulic strut which should have held the tractor door open was defective at the time of the accident.

He found that Mr Fanning had told his superior, Tim Woodlock, about the damaged strut, but that neither thought it was a serious danger and the strut remained broken until 2009.

But he said Mr Fanning, of Eyre Street, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, was 50 per cent responsible for the accident, as he had not alighted correctly or held the safety handle. The total award would have been €172,500, including general damages and loss of earnings past and future, he said, but the figure was reduced by half because of this.