May 18, 2012 6:05AM

A STUNTMAN who was injured working on Broadway?s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” has had a key legal win.

“Spider-Man” Producers were ordered yesterday to turn over any relevant information to Richard Kobak, who claims he suffered a concussion, whiplash and two holes in his knees while performing as the comic book hero.

Judge Ellen M. Coin of State Supreme Court in Manhattan granted Kobak’s request that 8 Legged Productions, the producers of the $US75 million ($75 million) show, hand over any memos, emails or any other evidence as he weighs pursuing a negligence lawsuit.

A spokesman for the producers did not immediately return a request for comment.

Kobak claims he suffered the leg injuries in 2010 while filling in for another injured stuntman at the most expensive show in Broadway history.

He alleges that the rigging he used for the show’s aerial acrobatics wasn’t recalibrated for him and, as a result, he made 70 hard landings on stage during performances and rehearsals.

He says the hard landings created a 1.4-millimetre hole in his right knee and a 9-millimetre hole in his left knee.

He also alleges that a computer program controlling one of his jumps from a balcony sent him flying into a wall on April 5, 2011.

He says he suffered two herniated discs, whiplash and a concussion.

Kobak’s court papers seek memos, emails or any other evidence about the computer program and the equipment, copies of accident reports prepared by producers and any other relevant papers to “determine if there is a viable claim.”

During the production’s rocky start, several accidents marred performances. One actor, Christopher Tierney, suffered a fractured skull, a fractured shoulder blade, four broken ribs and three broken vertebrae during a fall on Dec. 20, 2010.

The stuntman’s lawsuit is but one piece of unfinished business from the past that still hangs around a production that this week welcomed its 1 millionth audience member. The show has become one of Broadway’s top earners.

In November, fired “Spiderman” director Julie Taymor slapped the producers – led by Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris – as well as Glen Berger, her former co-book writer, with a federal copyright infringement lawsuit.

Taymor alleges they violated her creative rights and haven’t compensated her for the work she put into the show. In January, the producers filed a counterclaim asserting the copyright claims are baseless.

Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

by:Sophie Elsworth
From:The Courier-Mail
May 18, 2012 12:00AM

TWO Queensland mothers injured during a fatal balcony collapse are suing one of Brisbane’s elite private schools.

Anne Elizabeth Gillespie, 47, and Melinda Shirley Gaudion, 51, lodged civil suits in the Brisbane District Court this month for damages totalling more than $600,000.

It is the latest move in a long series of events that spiralled out of what was to be a joyous end-of-year lunch party for mothers of the Anglican Church Grammar School’s Year 12 class of 2008.

The women had gathered on a warm November day at the Ascot home of Belinda Biggs, mother of the school’s head boy. But 15 minutes into the event, the home’s veranda gave way.

About 20 women plunged 3m to the ground in a tangle of metal, wood and glass. At least 16 were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from moderate to critical – there were broken legs, a shattered pelvis and a report of a broken back.

Talented architect Annette Lee Spencer died from her injuries.

The event triggered a coroner’s inquest and multiple legal actions.

In the claim filed this month the two woman are also suing Mrs Biggs.

In the court documents Ms Gaudion and Ms Gillespie outlined their own injuries.

Ms Gillespie lists injuries to her cervical spine, right shoulder and jaw, acute vertigo, mild head injury with concussion, bruising and shock.

In the documents she also claims she has suffered chronic adjustment disorder with post-traumatic stress features and post-concussional disorder and is seeking damages of $346,189.

Ms Gaudion’s claim says she suffered a left foot injury including a mid-foot fracture dislocation, right ankle injury, bruising and shock.

It says she suffered from chronic adjustment disorder and mixed features of depression and post-traumatic stress. She is seeking damages totalling $270,097.

The women claim they received a written invitation by Churchie and each paid $40 to attend the function at the Upper Lancaster Rd property.

In the claim it states it was an implied term of the agreement that “reasonable care would be exercised, by a reasonable inspection being undertaken by a person competent to so do, namely a registered builder or building inspector, and reported on, before the school function, such as to reasonably conclude that the location for the function, namely the veranda of the dwelling, was safe for a group of 30 to 40 persons to congregate”.

The documents claim no inspection was “undertaken by or at the direction of Churchie and/or the school”.

The documents state both women are taking legal against against Shaun Duignan, a carpenter who worked on the house in late 2001 or early 2002.

They are also suing Australian Building Inspection Service Pty Ltd, which completed an inspection of the dwelling when Mrs Biggs bought the home in April 2005.

Mrs Biggs last year lodged documents in the Brisbane Supreme Court for damages totalling more than $750,000 against Australian Building Inspection Service.

Article source: www.couriermail.com.au

Petulia Patey and Amanda Lee suffered spinal injuries after hitting large waves on January 12 last year, while Brisbane health worker Jan Phillips fractured vertebra on March 22 in similar circumstances, while visiting one of New Zealand’s most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations.

The operators of the Paihia-based Excitor III, InterCity Group (NZ), admitted two health and safety charges last month after the incidents during high-speed jetboats trips out to the Hole in the Rock in the Bay of Islands, near the northern tip of the North Island.

In the Auckland District Court yesterday the company copped fines of $NZ120,000 and was ordered by Judge Phil Gittos to pay reparations totalling $NZ150,000 to the three women.

Ms Patey, the most seriously injured of the trio, was awarded $NZ60,000. The other two women will receive $NZ45,000 each.

Both charges were brought by Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) for “failing to take all practicable steps to ensure no action or inaction of any employee at work harmed any other person”.

The company was fined $NZ50,000 on the first charge and $NZ70,000 for the second charge.

MNZ investigator Bruce McLaren said the company had failed to react to passenger and staff concerns and did not stop its operation to fully investigate the causes of the injuries.

“Despite at least four similar incidents between January and March 2011, including the two serious injury incidents investigated by MNZ, the company did not stop its operation to investigate what might be causing people to get hurt.”

MNZ suspended the vessel from operating after Ms Phillips was injured.

Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

The Daily Telegraph
May 10, 2012 12:00AM

WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett says it is not the state’s obligation to compensate victims of a bushfire that bore down on runners in an ultramarathon race in the Kimberley region.

The state government sponsored the event, with its Tourism WA agency paying $85,000 to company Beyond Action to film it, although the contract was for $170,000.

A further $105,000 sponsorship payment under the Royalties for Regions program was approved by cabinet but was not paid to the race organiser, Racing the Planet of Hong Kong, in light of the tragedy in September last year.

The fire left runners Kate Sanderson and Turia Pitt with life-threatening burns to more than 60 per cent of their bodies.

Mr Barnett yesterday rejected calls for the $105,000 to be paid to the victims.

“It’s not a government responsibility,” he said.

“This was a private event conducted on private property, and the entrants entered into it on known conditions.”

He said there were strong grounds for compensation claims, but they should not be directed at the government.

A parliamentary inquiry is investigating whether proper protocols were in place.s

“I am terribly sympathetic to the young women concerned, and the state has been and will be supportive of them, but if there is any claim it would be against the private company that ran this event,” he said.

Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

Staff writer
From:Sunday Herald Sun
June 05, 2011 12:00AM

A FORMER Australian spy has won workers’ compensation claiming his spook work caused mental illness.

The 67-year-old man worked for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation from 1965-79 and claimed this caused depression, anxiety attacks, suicidal tendencies and nightmares.

The government insurer, Comcare, refused his application for compensation, but the Administrative Appeals Tribunal recently overturned the decision.

Article source: www.heraldsun.com.au

Rhianna King
April 25, 2012

Boat crash victim, Kate Campbell.

The son of a state MP who was ordered to pay $230,000 to a woman who suffered life threatening injuries in a boat crash four years ago says he cannot afford to pay any of the compensation.

Last month a judge ordered Luke Woollard to pay compensation to Kate Campbell, 24, who was placed into a coma and suffered a broken ankle, pelvis, vertebrae and jaw and a shattered larynx after slamming into the boat’s dashboard and windscreen when it crashed near the South of Perth Yacht Club in the early hours of November 7, 2007.

Mr Woollard, the son of Alfred Cove Independent MP Janet, last year pleaded guilty to causing Ms Campbell grievous bodily harm after crashing his father’s boat and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

But in a statement yesterday, Mr Woollard said he had no money and no assets to pay the compensation and his only option was to declare bankruptcy.

He said he had made a stupid decision on the night of the boat crash, but had since been subjected to years of criminal and civil litigation, and suffered more adverse publicity than most murderers.

“I hope that the community accepts that this is enough. I would like from now on to build a life and a career,” he said.

He accused Ms Campbell of commencing a “public press campaign to vilify” him.

He said his family had made several offers of $100,000 to Ms Campbell before the civil case.

Mr Woollard said he remained deeply sorry for what he did to Ms Campbell and he wished her well for the future.

He said his parents had twice offered Ms Campbell $100,000 to settle the civil litigation, but she had refused the offer.

But Ms Campbell Kate told 720 ABC Radio this morning she had tried to settle the matter out of court, but the out of court offers were insulting and would only be paid in installments.

“I tried everything out of court, out of the media light to try and get some compensation for my injuries and for my family to be recouped for their losses,” she said.

She said she was remaining optimistic that she would still receive the payout.

“I never wanted to punish Luke and I never wanted to see him bankrupt,” she said.

“Someone paid all his legal bills… I always thought someone would maybe pay my judgment if I was awarded it, which I was, but for some reason that someone isn’t there behind him anymore.”

“I have worked hard to get where I am today and I’ve now found a job, but it’s going to take me a long time to earn $230,000, I’m not going to lie.”

“But I can work hard, and I’m going to make sure my parents have an awesome retirement, when they reach that.”

During the civil case before Judge Philip McCann, the Perth District Court heard one of the passengers on the boat, Murray Patterson, had intended to drive the group home but Mr Woollard “shoved” him out of the way to take control of the wheel.

Mr Woollard admitted he was “10 out of 10 drunk” but argued Ms Campbell knew he was intoxicated and accepted the risks when she boarded the boat.

Defence lawyer Raoul Cywicki said Ms Campbell had turned down three offers of lifts or taxi rides home so she could travel with her partner to his home in Salter Point, in Perth’s south.

Ms Campbell testified she was concerned about Mr Woollard driving the boat but did not ask him to return to shore or let her off.

Article source: www.watoday.com.au

Amy Corderoy
May 3, 2012 – 1:54PM

Brain tumor patient found on highway.

A doctor’s horrific story of how the Royal North Shore Hospital lost he husband, who was later found on the pacific Highway.

Family forced to clean son’s ‘putrid’ room

Hospital lost brain tumour patient

Transferred heart attack victim locked out

Infectious patients abandoned in corridors

Patients at Royal North Shore and their families have spoken out about the treatment they have received at the hospital.

Responding on 702 ABC Sydney’s Morning program with Linda Mottram today to a story in today’s Herald, one caller, Estelle, said her husband had been forced to bring his own mop and bucket to clean her son’s “putrid” room.

“I’m a nurse and I’ve been a nurse for 30 years and I was just absolutely appalled by the filthy conditions at the hospital,” she said.

“He couldn’t wait to get out of there, he was terrified he was going to pick up some infection. The toilet had faeces and urine and obviously it was never cleaned … or certainly need to be cleaned a lot more.”

CONFUSED, DYING HUSBAND LOST

Another caller, Helen, told how the hospital had failed to look after her husband – who just hours earlier was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour that was confusing and disorienting him – when he had wandered off from the private North Shore Hospital and turned up at the public hospital.

“To say this was one of the worst days in my life is an understatement. He has since died. At no point did we get an apology.

“I had not slept all night. We had told our children that he was going to die, and I had just come home having had no sleep and was called back to say they couldn’t find him,” she said.

“He left the private [hospital] went to the public and even though he had a name tag on him, they sent him off somewhere and he stumbled through the cemetery and went through the building works and several hours later the police found him on the Pacific Highway.

“He was now covered in cuts and grazes all over his head where he was meant to be having his neurosurgery operation the next day for the biopsy.

“It was me that found him despite having all the security from both hospitals. I found him in the ambulance bay being brought in by the police and the ambulance.”

HEART ATTACK VICTIM LOCKED OUT

Alan was transferred to Royal North Shore after having a heart attack in Gosford, but when his ambulance arrived they found the emergency department locked.

“They locked the doors and we were wandering the wards of the hospital trying to find out where we were meant to go … the nurses there were expressing there weren’t enough cleaners, there weren’t enough staff,” he said.

“I don’t know when your last experience was at Royal North Shore if ever but you walk through this hospital and there are enormous black patches where they have switched out the lights. It’s almost like a ghost town.”

Article source: www.smh.com.au

AAP
May 03, 2012 3:39PM

QUEENSLAND taxpayers will have to pay the $125,000 compensation bill for a drunken man whose feet were fractured when he was hit by a car while trying to cross a road.

The District Court in Brisbane today ordered the Queensland government-funded Nominal Defendant body pay compensation to Gary John McLean for injuries he suffered on the evening of March 8, 2009.

The Nominal Defendant body compensates people who are injured as a result of the negligent driving of unidentified or uninsured vehicles.

During the hearing in November last year, the court was told McLean, who had been drinking at a pub all day, was hit by an unidentified car while walking to his sister’s home at Deception Bay, east of Brisbane.

The impact fractured both his feet.

An elderly couple helped him to his sister’s home, where he collapsed on the front lawn.

The court was told he was initially reluctant to go to hospital because he wanted to keep drinking, and that he gave various accounts of what had happened.

Lawyers acting for the Nominal Defendant argued in court that the unreliability of his evidence meant his account could not be accepted.

However, Judge John McGill ruled McLean could be trusted because his description of where the incident occurred matched a location that was on the route between the pub and his sister’s house.

He also said McLean’s injuries were consistent with him trying to jump out of the way of a fast-moving car.

Judge McGill awarded McLean the money to cover economic loss and medical expenses.

Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

by:Tony Keim
From:The Courier-Mail
November 22, 2011 1:26PM

A 17-YEAR-OLD boy’s brutal attack on a childhood mate – triggered by accusations of rumours being spread about his sister almost a decade ago – has resulted in him receiving a compensation bill in excess of $50,000.

A Brisbane District Court criminal compensation hearing was this month told Sam Rowan Knoble, then aged 17, assaulted Benjamin Nicholas Houghton, then 16, and caused him grievous bodily harm in January 2002.

The court was told Knoble, now aged 25, attacked Mr Houghton after confronting him about “saying derogatory
things about his sister”.

Knoble, the court was told, said to Mr Houghton: “Are you still saying stuff about my sister?”

Judge Nick Samios was told Knoble then punched Mr Houghton in the eye while telling him “you deserve this” and then ran away.

Mr Houghton was eventually taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital and treated for a fractured right cheekbone involving his right eye socket.

The court was told on June 19, 2003, Knoble was sentenced to an intensive correction order – a prison sentence served within the community – after pleading guilty to one count of assault causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Samios, in an 11-page just published judgment,  said Mr Houghton had since lodged a claim for criminal compensation for “four discrete injuries”, including bruising, fractures to his right cheekbone involving the eye socket, nerve damage and mental or nervous shock.

The court was told prior to the attack Knoble and Mr Houghton had been friends, but then had a falling out in the wake of rumours being spread about Knoble’s sister.

“On the date the offence was committed Mr Knoble approached Mr Houghton and said: ‘Are you still saying stuff about my sister?”  Judge Samios said.

“Mr Houghton told him that he had not been saying anything about his sister and asked Mr Knoble to hear him out.”

It was then that Knoble grabbed Mr Houghton by the “collar”, pushed him “back against a wall” and then punched him twice in the eye.

Judge Samios was told Mr Hougton fell to the ground dizzy and in pain, but got up a few minutes later and caught a bus home.
“When he arrived (home) his father took him to the family doctor who advised him to take him to the Royal Brisbane Hospital (for surgery),” he said.

Knoble was ordered to pay Mr Houghton a total of $52,500 in compensation.

Any person ordered to pay compensation is expected to do so if they have the means. But the State Government has a taxpayer-funded account to make payment.

Article source: www.couriermail.com.au

By Nicole Cox
The Sunday Times
June 25, 2011 8:00PM

A BREAST cancer survivor has been sacked from her cleaning job after asking to go on light duties while she recovers from surgery.

Linda Weier said she had been left on the scrapheap after being fired by Spotless from her cleaning supervisor job at David Jones’ Claremont and Perth city stores this month.

Ms Weier was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in March 2009 and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy before returning to work in October that year.

She said, despite doctors restricting her to just several hours of light duties a week after breast reconstruction surgery, she was put under pressure to work more hours including heavy lifting.

But this caused the stitches in her chest wound to burst open on three separate occasions between March 2010 and February this year.

Now, she has referred the case to her union, United Voice, which is pursuing a worker’s compensation claim and recovery of lost earnings.

“It seems they’re just worrying about their own company and their profits without any care about their employees at all,” Ms Weier told The Sunday Times.

“I was told to take it easy because I had just had the reconstruction where they take the muscles from your back to the front so that needed time to heal. I was told to do light duties and just gradually build up the hours as I recovered.”

Ms Weier said she was relegated to toilet and cardboard crushing duties and forced to move bales of cardboard weighing about 150kg.

“I couldn’t keep up with the baling because I didn’t have the strength I normally did,” she said. “It’s pretty heavy work, even the guys there struggled.

“Moving the cardboard and lifting the baler ripped all my internal stitches down the middle so I had a bullfrog chest.

“I went in for surgery and time off to recover but when I came back to work, they put me back on toilets and the baling and I ripped it again through the heavy lifting.”

She suffered a third tear to the wound in February this year and took time off for more surgery.

Ms Weier said she had tried to make contact with her manager in the days before she was due to return to work after her latest bout of surgery but calls and emails went unanswered.

The day before she was due to start back, she received a letter advising she had been laid off.

In the letter, dated June 2, WA general manager for operations Brad Walther wrote: “Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate the current work restrictions that you advised us of … In order to return to work you will need to provide us with a medical certificate clearing you for full duties with no restrictions.”

United Voice WA branch secretary Dave Kelly said the company’s behaviour and lack of support to a recovering cancer victim beggared belief and the union would lobby for Ms Weier’s return to work and recovery of lost earnings.

“To have to deal with the cancer in the first place is obviously bad enough, but from what we understand Spotless have not dealt with this in the professional way they should have,” Mr Kelly said.

“It seems to us that there has been some undue pressure for her to come back to work earlier than she should have. The implication that if she didn’t come back to work her job wouldn’t be there seems to us to be particularly harsh.

“Spotless have told us that they are not going to offer her any further work, so they are essentially washing their hands of her case, until she is 100 per cent fit.

“If someone has a work-related injury, you can’t terminate their employment and that’s effectively what they’ve done so we will try and enforce Spotless’s obligation to provide her with further work.”

A Spotless spokeswoman said she could not comment publicly on Ms Weier’s case for privacy reasons.

“In strict observance with the privacy guidelines and privacy laws, we can’t comment on employee matters,” she said. “The privacy laws strictly prohibit companies from discussing individual personal matters.”

Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au