Plasterer sues council for £50k after saving infant

A PLASTERER who saved a mother and baby from being crushed by a falling school gate is suing the city council for £50,000 in damages after he was injured in the rescue.

Warren Anderson was working at James Gillespie’s High School in Marchmont when the four-metre high gate snapped off its hinges.

The 31-year-old saw that a woman pushing a pram along the street was about to be struck by the one-tonne wooden gate and moved to catch the impact on his back.

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The mother and child escaped uninjured following the incident, but Mr Anderson suffered a muscle strain to his shoulder from the blow.

Now he has launched a legal action against the city council at the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking compensation for his injury.

The court heard that Mr Davidson, of Loganlea Drive in Craigentinny, had been working as a plasterer for Cornhill Building Services at the school campus in Lauderdale Street.

Arriving at the school with a colleague at 11am, they sought entry through a stone archway with heavy wooden gates. The gates had been fitted as replacements for the lead-lined gates which had been taken away for repair two months previously.

Mr Anderson and a school janitor had opened the gates to allow his colleague to drive in with their work van.

As Mr Anderson went to close one of the gates, it came off its hinge and fell towards him as he spotted the woman with the pram. He took the impact of the gate on his back to protect them, suffering the injury as a result.

Lawyers for Mr Anderson told the court that their client had to undergo 16 session of physiotherapy to treat the injury, and was forced to take time off work.

They added that Mr Anderson was likely to suffer pain in the “long term” as he continues to recover from the accident, which took place on August 23, 2010.

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Lawyers for the council told the court that Cornhill Building Services should be at least partly liable for the accident as it was Mr Anderson’s employer.

The action is set to call again at the Court of Session later this year.

A spokeswoman for Digby Brown, the solicitors firm representing Mr Anderson, declined to comment.

Cornhill Building Services were contacted for comment but failed to respond.

A city council spokeswoman said they could not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

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