WRULD DB-Claimant: Julie Donnellan

Case	Task	Injury	Date	Court	Judgment for
Donnellan - v - Halifax Building Society	DSE use: form filling	De Quervain's Syndrome	12 Nov 1999	Manchester County	Defendant

According to a note of the Judgment (no official transcript is held) Mrs Donnellan sought damages against her former employers, the Halifax Building Society, for an injury she allegedly sustained to her right wrist during her employment from December 1992 to July 1993, when she went off work. The Claimant's case was that in December 1992 computing use increased significantly following a change in a computer system. It was alleged that due to a short cable length to the keyboard, the keyboard was offset to her right as the Claimant undertook a mortgage interview. This meant that to use the keyboard her hand was in ulnar deviation. It was contended that this abnormal position of the hand was responsible for the Claimant developing De Quervain's Syndrome in or about May or June 1993.

Additional allegations were made regarding the layout of the table such that her chair would not fit beneath it due to general clutter. It was alleged that given the amount of work and the manner in which it was undertaken a reasonably foreseeable risk of injury ought to have been apparent to the Defendant. It was alleged that the Defendant failed to advise the Claimant of the potential risk of injury, failed to prevent the risk materialising and failed to modify the equipment and failed to reduce the exposure when known. In addition to liability for the onset of the condition it was alleged that the Defendant was liable for exacerbation of the condition for causing or permitting the Claimant to continue with her work once the Defendant knew or ought to have known of her complaint.

The Claimant alleged negligence and breaches of various statutory duties. However, at the start of the trial it was conceded by Counsel for the Claimant that the Claimant was not a "user" for the purposes of the Display Screen Equipment Regulations. Significantly, the Claimant also alleged a breach of regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations that required the Defendant to provide and maintain adequate and suitable appliances so as to ensure work safety. This allegation added little to the criticisms in negligence but if a breach of this duty was established then reasonable foreseeability would not be an issue to be considered as in negligence.

The Claimant's hours of work were from 9.00am to 1.00pm Monday to Friday together with an additional three hours on alternate Saturdays. Her work involved responsibility for mortgage applications and enquiries, further advances, account opening, customer queries and general reception duties. Some of the work involved use of a computer and keyboard. It was accepted by the Claimant that inputting a mortgage application required typing the equivalent of approximately one sheet of A4 or approximately 3,000 key strokes. Assuming three hours for each mortgage application, resulted in a data entry rate of 17 characters per minute or 1,000 per hour. It was conceded by the Claimant that the number of key strokes in itself did not give rise to a foreseeable risk of injury.

Mr Recorder Aldiss acquitted the Defendant of any wrong doing in negligence or statutory duty and went on to find that the work had neither caused the onset of the Claimant's De Quervain's Syndrome nor any subsequent exacerbation of the condition.

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Last updated: 16/10/2009