JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

T&TEC to pay $.5M in compensation to employee for 2016 injury

by

Derek Achong
6 days ago
20250702
FILE: Offices of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission in Port -of-Spain.

FILE: Offices of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission in Port -of-Spain.

T&TEC Facebook

The T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) has been or­dered to pay over $500,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to an em­ploy­ee who was in­jured while per­form­ing his du­ties in 2016.

High Court Judge Ricky Rahim or­dered com­pen­sa­tion for Mar­lon Nel­son as he up­held the neg­li­gence case against T&TEC yes­ter­day.

The law­suit cen­tred around an in­ci­dent at T&TEC’s Stan­ley P Ot­t­ley Build­ing in Mt Hope on May 23, 2016.

Nel­son, a helper in the com­mis­sion’s Su­per­vi­so­ry Con­trol and Da­ta Ac­qui­si­tion de­part­ment (SCA­DA), was in­struct­ed by his su­per­vi­sor to trans­fer equip­ment due to a rat in­fes­ta­tion in a sec­tion of the build­ing.

Nel­son was mov­ing a pro­tec­tion pan­el us­ing a dol­ly when a wheel got stuck in a crack in the floor. The pan­el top­pled, and Nel­son used his body to brace it from hit­ting the floor.

Nel­son suf­fered a spinal in­jury and was forced to miss sev­er­al weeks of work. Al­though the com­mis­sion paid the ma­jor­i­ty of his med­ical bills, in­clud­ing surgery, he still filed the case al­leg­ing neg­li­gence.

The com­mis­sion de­nied any wrong­do­ing as it claimed that Nel­son com­pro­mised his own safe­ty by choos­ing to per­form the task alone with­out seek­ing the as­sis­tance of his col­leagues.

In de­cid­ing the case, Jus­tice Rahim crit­i­cised Nel­son’s su­per­vi­sor, Dar­ren Robin­son, who was the on­ly wit­ness called by the com­mis­sion.

He up­held Nel­son’s claim that he sought as­sis­tance from Robin­son, who in­struct­ed him to com­plete the task with­out help. “It is the find­ing of the court that Robin­son was not telling the truth and was an abysmal su­per­vi­sor on that day, in that he failed to su­per­vise the job and gave in­struc­tions to Mar­lon which he would have rea­son­ably fore­seen could lead to in­jury,” Jus­tice Rahim said.

De­spite find­ing that the com­pa­ny was neg­li­gent and breached pro­vi­sions of the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Act (OS­HA) deal­ing with pro­vid­ing a safe work­space, Jus­tice Rahim al­so found that Nel­son was par­tial­ly to blame for his in­jury.

Stat­ing that Nel­son was aware that the pan­el was heavy and mov­ing it was a dan­ger­ous task, Jus­tice Rahim said: “This is sim­ply noth­ing short of as­tound­ing and demon­strat­ed a clear dis­re­gard for his own safe­ty as op­posed to the safe­ty, as it were, of the inan­i­mate pan­el.”

“In the court’s view, he bears re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for his own ac­tions which have ma­te­ri­al­ly con­tributed to his in­jury,” Jus­tice Rahim added, as he agreed to re­duce Nel­son’s com­pen­sa­tion by 30 per cent based on his con­trib­u­to­ry neg­li­gence.

In as­sess­ing the ap­pro­pri­ate com­pen­sa­tion for Nel­son less the dis­count, Jus­tice Rahim de­cid­ed on $140,000 in gen­er­al dam­ages for the pain and suf­fer­ing he en­dured.

The com­pen­sa­tion was large­ly based on the ex­tent of his in­jury, which still per­sists de­spite his surgery, and its ef­fect on his abil­i­ty to play the gui­tar se­mi-pro­fes­sion­al­ly in a band, which played back­up in­stru­men­tals for lo­cal and for­eign per­form­ers. “The in­jury has pre­vent­ed him from play­ing with the lev­el of skill as be­fore. More­over, if he per­sists in play­ing in spite of the pain he de­vel­ops a mi­graine,” Jus­tice Rahim said.

Jus­tice Rahim al­so or­dered $371,271.25 in spe­cial dam­ages.

The spe­cial dam­ages were based on his loss of earn­ings from T&TEC when he missed work due to the in­jury and his fu­ture loss of earn­ings from play­ing pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly in the band in his free time. It al­so cov­ers the cost of his con­tin­u­ing phys­io­ther­a­py for the in­jury.

The com­mis­sion was al­so or­dered to pay his le­gal costs for the law­suit.

Nel­son was rep­re­sent­ed by Clay Hack­ett, and Alatashe Gir­van. The com­mis­sion was rep­re­sent­ed by An­der­son Mod­este.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

Ringmasters of the Road: Crowds flock to Tribe’s circus-themed band launch

16 hours ago
Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Scotiabank Foundation, United Way donate steelpans

16 hours ago
The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday