Former Freedom Furniture storeman awarded $5.6 million in damages over workplace injury

Acting Justice Robert Crowe ordered the payout in favour of the 35-year-old father on Monday, following a hearing in the ACT Supreme Court last month.

The man had expressed concerns prior to the incident in September 2016 that there was too much stock in the Fyshwick Freedom Furniture warehouse and that someone would hurt themselves in the "incredibly cluttered" aisles.

On the day in question, he was trying to load a 120-kilogram sofa onto a trolley when it knocked the dining table, which was standing upright against some shelving, causing the table to fall and hit him in the head and right shoulder.

He tried to regain control of the trolley but ended up on the floor underneath the fallen table.

By the time a colleague lifted the object off the man, he had pain in his head, neck, right shoulder and back.

His supervisor called his partner, who came and took him to hospital.

Acting Justice Crowe's judgment shows that the man was subsequently unable to take up a new job as a baggage handler at Canberra Airport because he could not complete the required physical assessment.

The man made a workers' compensation claim, started physiotherapy and eventually returned to Freedom Furniture on restricted duties.

But he became "very upset" when his case manager suggested the pain he felt was "entirely in his head", and he began drinking heavily.

The man then started feeling "paranoid" that his colleagues were judging him and talking about him behind his back, to the point that he began "hyperventilating, shaking and crying" during staff meetings.

Things eventually deteriorated so much that the man made a number of suicide attempts and had to be frequently admitted to a mental health unit.

The man resigned from his job towards the end of 2017.

He sued Steinhoff Asia Pacific Limited, trading as Freedom Furniture, arguing the company had been negligent and had failed to provide a safe workplace.

"He claims that that injury has caused him to suffer serious and disabling mental illness, which has effectively destroyed his earning capacity and left him with a high need for care and future medical treatment," Acting Justice Crowe said.

The judge ultimately found the man's work environment had been unsafe, "having regard to the evidence as to the cluttered nature of the aisles".

"It should have been obvious to the defendant that storing large, heavy objects upright in the aisles created the risk that such an item might fall while workers were trying to move stock through the aisle," he said.

"I find that the defendant was negligent, and in breach of its statutory duty, in the circumstances leading to the injury."

Acting Justice Crowe's judgment sets out evidence from a number of experts, including a psychologist, psychiatrist and rehabilitation physician.

They described the 35-year-old man as an active suicide risk who was unfit for work, and who was sometimes in pain so severe it was "almost the strongest imaginable sensation of any kind".

"I am not confident regarding the plaintiff's future," the psychiatrist said.

"Left with no proper treatment program, matters will inevitably worsen."

Acting Justice Crowe ordered the company to pay the man $5,624,298, with money for things including general damages, out of pocket expenses, lost earning capacity, and domestic care and assistance.

"I am conscious that the award of damages here is a large one," the judge said.

"However ... I am satisfied that the award is proportionate and appropriate for the catastrophic effects which the work injury ... has had, and will have, on the plaintiff's life."

This is not the first time an injury involving Freedom Furniture in Fyshwick has resulted in a substantial payout.

In 2012, a woman who had worked there was awarded $1.3 million after she was seriously hurt while lifting a carton of crockery.

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