A checklist existed, the hazard was visible, and the employer still shared the blame
A dropped load of steel bars ended a stevedore's career - and put her employer on the hook alongside the ship's owner.
In a judgment delivered on August 11, 2026, the Supreme Court of New South Wales found both a container-ship owner and a stevedoring employer negligent after portable stowage hooks failed on a vessel berthed at Port Botany, sending heavy steel lashing bars onto a worker's lower body.
The worker had started her night shift at 9pm on August 22, 2018. Within the hour, a pair of loaded stowage hooks gave way as she walked along a walkway on the ship. The falling bars caused serious injuries to her right leg, ankle and foot, which all parties accepted. She also claimed injuries to her neck and left shoulder and psychiatric injuries, which the defendants disputed.
For HR and safety professionals, the instructive part is how the court divided responsibility. The shipowner, Pacific International Lines, had bought the new stowage hooks about 12 days before the incident, and the court found it responsible for supplying equipment that failed. The employer, Patrick Stevedores Holdings, was found responsible for a narrower lapse: it did not tell the shipowner the hooks were full or nearly full before work began. The court apportioned liability 80% to the shipowner and 20% to the employer.
That 20% is the lesson. The employer did not supply the faulty gear. Its share of the blame rested...
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