Court in workplace injury case sees film of mushroom picker cycling and walking
A mushroom picker suing over a 2016 workplace back injury was filmed cycling and pushing a pram although she told a doctor in the last year she could neither cycle or walk since the accident, the High Court heard.
Ewa Rolbiecka (aged 51), Cré Na Mara, Arklow, Co Wicklow, said she had good days and bad days and on bad days, she could not do these things.
She is suing her employer Michael Kennedy after she fell while using an unsuitable low stool trying to pick from a high mushroom shelf in Kennedy's farm, Arklow, on January 3, 2016. Mr Kennedy denies she was not provided with proper equipment for her job.
She said she has been unable to work since because of pain in her back. She came down hard on her right leg onto a concrete surface and suffered nerve compression in her back, it was claimed.
The court heard that last May she told one doctor she was unable to cycle or walk because of the ongoing pain. She told another doctor last October she had problems lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling things. It was also claimed she could not vacuum for more than five minutes, wash dishes or clothes and was unable to wear high heels.
Film shot on December 29, 2016, by a private investigator from a security firm, was shown to the court. It showed Ms Rolbiecka cycling around Arklow to her sister's home and to a furniture shop. Another, shot in January of this year, showed her pushing her granddaughter in a pram to a local shopping centre and browsing in the stores.
Finbarr Fox SC, for the defendant, put it to her the film of her cycling with obvious effort did not fit with the description of a woman who cannot push a vacuum cleaner. She replied she liked cycling as it was a form of exercise which helped her but she could not do it every day the way she used to. She had also received injections and other medication to help her.
Ms Rolbiecka, who is Polish and spoke through an interpreter, disputed counsel's suggestion that the shoes she was wearing while cycling were high heels. They had heels but were not high, she said.
Asked about the day she was filmed pushing the pram for a couple of hours, she said she used the pram as support.
"Look at your hands", counsel said, "are you saying you are using it to support yourself?". She replied: "Of course, I support myself because the pram has wheels and goes on its own."
She disagreed her disability was "wholly overstated" and exaggerated or that the woman in the videos was wholly unrecognisable from what she was claiming to suffer from.
"Once again, I say there are better days and worse days, I am treated and I take painkillers, I don't know what else to say".
The case was adjourned to Tuesday for re-examination by her own lawyer. Her counsel said he wanted to be supplied in the meantime with the entire footage to see if she had to stop and take breaks on the days she was filmed.
