Employer cleared of involuntary homicide of employee who died in goods lift

The owner of a takeaway outlet in Ghaxaq has been cleared of negligently causing the death of one of his employees, who died after getting stuck in an elevator door, but was fined €6,000 for health and safety violations. 

Paul Grech, 53, had been charged with involuntary homicide after employee Marco Gonzi was killed while operating a goods lift in September 2014. 

Grech was also charged with a number of offences under local health and safety legislation, including failure to carry out a health and safety evaluation at the workplace to identify the risks, failing to inform his employees about the potential risks and failing to ensure that the workers are given the necessary equipment training. He was also charged with failing to ensure that the lift was inspected and certified every six months.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, in his judgment on the matter, observed that the applicable Maltese law was based on Italian law, which had always interpreted negligence as being subjective. “It is necessary therefore that one indicates if the particular circumstances of the case would permit the person involved to realise the consequences of their actions.”

Quoting eminent jurist Sir Anthony Mamo, the court noted that “it is clear that by them the law means generally the absence of such care and precautions as it was the duty of the defendant to take in the circumstances… The essence of negligence is made to consist in the “possibility of foreseeing” the event which has not been foreseen.”

 The court also cited British jurists, as saying  “It has from time to time been said that a man is presumed to intend the natural consequences of his acts, but in the first place this is at most a presumption, and in the second place it applies only if ‘natural’ is read as meaning ‘blatantly highly probable’: if this were not so, all crimes of intent would be reduced to crimes of negligence.’”

However on the subject of health and safety at the workplace, the court examined jurisprudence which established that employers had a duty to ensure that risks at the workplace are reduced as much as possible.

“The court makes it clear that human life is precious and everything must be done to protect it from conception to its end. Therefore it asks that all measures to reduce accidents are taken at workplaces so we do not have incidents that leave victims due to lack of observance of health and safety legislation.”

The court observed in this case that although there were a number of shortcomings, the case “was an unfortunate one that had serious consequences.” Magistrate Mifsud said he was in no doubt that the accused had not acted “with the consciousness of the wrongful and unlawful character of his deed.”

It also noted that the accused had not abandoned the victim’s family, nor had he waited to be asked to give them support and had continued to pass on the victim’s pay to the family.

 The larger picture painted by the evidence and testimony led the court to declare that the accused could not legitimately be found guilty of the charge of involuntary homicide.

Grech was, however found guilty of the other charges and fined a total of €6,000. He was warned that failure to pay the fine would result in imprisonment.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Amadeus Cachia and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel