An appeals court yesterday awarded €38,993.71 damages to a builder injured at work, almost doubling the amount he had won in a previous ruling after finding he had no responsibility for the accident.

George Cardona was hit by the arm of a crane as he was laying stone slabs on the construction site of a warehouse in Victoria in 1999. He suffered a permanent disability of 16 per cent. Mr Cardona and his wife Nancy then filed a writ for damages in the Gozo courts against his employer Ferdinando Zammit.

In November 2005 the court found that Mr Zammit was liable for two-thirds of the damages sustained by Mr Cardona and ordered him to pay the latter just over €22,300 damages.

The Cardonas then went to the Court of Appeal composed of Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice Joseph Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A Filletti. They denied that the builder bore one-third of the responsibility for the accident and objected to the amount awarded.

In yesterday's judgment the Court of Appeal pointed out that Mr Zammit had not appealed against the first court's judgment. The appeals court had therefore to assess whether Mr Cardona had contributed towards the accident and to review the damages award.

Reviewing the evidence heard by the first court, it said it did not result that Mr Cardona had failed to wear safety gear. On the contrary, Mr Zammit, who was the employer, had failed to provide his employees with protective clothing.

As a result, there was no contributory negligence on the part of Mr Cardona and his employer had failed to provide him with a safe system of work.

The court therefore ordered Mr Zammit to pay Mr Cardona €38,993.71 damages.