Damages awarded to a drydocks worker who suffered permanent disability in a fall in 1993 were increased from almost €101,000 to over €125,000.

Raymond Barbara worked as a stager slinger and, in October 1993, while doing the night shift, the scaffolding he was standing on collapsed, falling a height of five storeys into a dock.

He sustained serious injuries to his chest, stomach and spine and was unable to return to work. At the time he was 36 years old.

The First Hall of the Civil Court had concluded that Mr Barbara had suffered a 100 per cent permanent disability and awarded him €100,997 in damages after deducting what had already been given to him by the drydocks. Mr Barbara appealed on grounds that the amount was insufficient and the drydocks objected to the entire judgment.

Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Tonio Mallia and Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi, sitting in the Court of Appeal, declared yesterday that the first court had made a correct evaluation of the evidence and had reached the correct conclusions.

The accident had occurred when the bracket supporting the scaffolding on which Mr Barbara stood had torn off, something the drydocks was responsible for.

The Court of Appeal however ­­­­varied the multiplier used to calculate the damages. As Mr Barbara was 36 at the time of the accident, the three judges argued that the multiplier that ought to have been used was that of 20 years, being the time Mr Barbara could be expected to have carried on working had he not been injured.

The damages should have therefore amounted to €182,400, from which the sum of €39,957.50, namely the provisional damages given to him by the drydocks, should be deducted.

As Mr Barbara was receiving a weekly pension of about €70, the Court of Appeal ruled that the sum, multiplied by 20 years and equivalent to €16,776 was also to be deducted from the damages award.

Thus, it awarded Mr Barbara €125,676.50 in damages.