A damages award has been increased by the Court of Appeal which found that the first court had made an error in an accident victim’s age.

The court heard that in April 2008 the First Hall of the Civil Court had awarded Alfred Attard €30,354 (Lm13,031) in damages after it found that he had been injured in an accident involving a fork lifter driven by Carmel Galea.

The two men were stevedores in the Port Workers Scheme and were therefore self employed. Their job was to load and unload merchandise from vessels in the Grand Harbour.

Mr Attard, who was the foreman, was supervising the unloading of merchandise when he was hit by a forklifter driven by Mr Galea.

It resulted that Mr Galea did not have a clear line of vision as the merchandise he was carrying had obstructed his view. He had therefore hit Mr Attard and caused him serious injuries.

The court appointed medical experts assessed Mr Attard’s permanent disability at 20% and the first court established its damages award on this percentage and on Mr Attard’s age of 62 at the time of the accident.

Both parties appealed from this judgment to the Court ofAppeal composed of Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph A Filletti and Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia.

Mr Galea asked the court to revoke the judgment on the basis that he was not solely responsible for the accident. On his part Mr Attard claimed that the award of the first court was defective as he had been 59 years old at the time of the accident.

On appeal the court ruled that it saw no reason to vary the first court’s judgment insofar as it regarded responsibility for the accident. The court confirmed that Mr Galea was responsible for the accident and for the damages sustained by Mr Attard.

However, the court varied the damages award on the basis that the first court had erroneously established Mr Attard’s age at 62 when he was in fact 59 years old.

The court therefore increased the damages award to €37,379.45.

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