The Court of Appeal has upheld permission for two fire officers to sue the government, after they were injured when the fire truck they were driving overturned during a routine exercise.
The officers, Jason Phelan McCoy and Garfield Marcelo Ritch, were both employed by the Cayman Islands Fire Service and were stationed at the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport at the time of the accident in 2017.
According to an accident reconstruction report, the crash was caused by a rusted bolt, which led to a mechanical failure that caused the fire truck to flip while McCoy was attempting to turn the vehicle at a speed of 27 miles per hour along the runway.
In their claim against the Cayman Islands government, McCoy, 38, and Ritch, 55, said “they suffered personal injury, loss and damage” due to the government’s negligence.
McCoy and Ritch argued that, although the were not directly employed with the government, they were still considered civil servants, as the Fire Services was a quasi-government entity, and therefore government had a “vicarious liability” to ensure they were provided with a safe working environment, free from faulty equipment or other hazards.
In January, Grand Court Judge Margaret Ramsay-Hale dismissed an application by the Crown to block the officers from suing the government under section 9 (5)b of the Fire Brigade Act.
The clause states, “No action for damages may be brought in respect of death, injury or loss incurred by any person occasioned in the course of carrying out any other responsibility or duty imposed by this or any other law.”
In their judgment, which was handed down on 30 Nov., the appeal judges, upheld Justice Ramsay-Hale’s dismissal of the Crown’s claims.
“I cannot accept that section 9(5) reflected a considered intention of the Legislative Assembly to deprive fire officers of their entitlement to sue their employer for its breach of duty following consideration of the balance between the taxpaying public and fire officers’ benefits,” wrote Sir John Goldring, the President of the Court of Appeal.
By upholding the Grand Court decision, the Court of Appeal has cleared the way for McCoy and Ritch to sue the government.
As of press deadline no office lawsuit had been filed with the civil registry.
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