The managing director of a company which supplies doors told the High Court yesterday that, from 1998, it had ceased installing doors with low-level letter boxes because of complaints from An Post.
Mr Thomas Shevlin, of Global Windows, was giving evidence at the resumed hearing of the action by a postal worker, Mr Anthony Clabby (40), of Woodlawn Vale, Santry, Dublin.
Mr Clabby is suing Global for damages and the latter has joined An Post as a party to the proceedings.
Mr Clabby claims that when he was delivering mail at Cooltree Park, Beaumont, Dublin, on March 27th, 1996, he bent down on his hunkers as he had been shown by an An Post inspector. He had lifted the plate on the letter box with one hand and pushed the letter through with the other.
When he straightened up, he experienced severe back pain and has suffered from soreness, discomfort and general upset to his life as a result.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, was told that Mr Clabby had 600 premises on his postal route. About 100 had doors with low-level boxes.
The box at Cooltree Park was stated to be two inches from the base of the door, which was installed in 1993.
In his evidence, Mr Shevlin said that it was only in 1996-97 that he had received a circular from An Post in relation to low letter boxes.
He had attended trade meetings and discussed designs previously but nothing had come up about low-level letter boxes.
Mr John Trainor SC, for Mr Clabby, said he would be submitting that Global Windows should have been aware of an Irish standard concerning letter boxes and the risk posed.
Mr Shevlin said no one in the industry knew about it at that time and the existence of that standard had not been made known to him.
They had not been aware of a risk and did not see it as a risk. They first became aware of it when An Post sent a circular and had then instructed sales persons to explain to customers that there was a health and safety problems.
Mr James Bolger, an An Post inspector, said he was involved in the training of An Post personnel. Postal workers were told how to deal with mail being inserted into low-level boxes. An Post had been doing its best about something that carried the risk of injury.
The hearing resumes on December 17th.