Sea Malta ordered to pay €200,000 over man's death

Sea Malta Company Ltd was yesterday ordered to pay almost €200,000 (Lm84,375) to the heirs of a man who died in 1992.

The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Raymond C. Pace in the case instituted by Kristinu Abela's widow Mary and his children Beverly Marie and Christian against Sea Malta.

In 1994, the Għaqda tal-Ko-operattiva tal-Burdnara (1987) Ltd was called into the suit.

Last year Sea Malta was represented by its liquidators John Abela and Andrew Chetcuti Ganado.

The court heard that in July 2002, a groupage container belonging to Sea Malta was being unloaded. Sea Malta had engaged the stevedores' cooperative to unload the container.

While the works were under way, a box broke loose, falling on Mr Abela, crushing him.

The court heard that the box contained glass and that normally such boxes were not stored in a sealed container, as happened in this case. Usually, glass is stored in an open container so that it could be easily identified and danger avoided.

It was obvious that Mr Abela had not realised how heavy the merchandise was when he tried to unload it from the container.

Mr Justice Pace added that the container had not been properly loaded, and that Sea Malta was, therefore, responsible for Mr Abela's death.

The court awarded Mr Abela's widow and children €196,540.88 (Lm84,375) in damages.