State ordered to compensate conscript for back injury

The state has been ordered to compensate a former conscript for back injuries he sustained during his stint in the National Guard.
In a ruling delivered a few days ago, the Larnaca district court awarded the young man some €36,000 in damages after he successfully demonstrated that his injuries were a direct result of orders from his commanding officers.
As reported by Politis, the plaintiff claimed that in August 2010 he suffered a slipped disc while hauling tank shells, weighing 20 to 25 kg each.
The soldier and two others – serving in the Armoured Division – had been tasked with removing shells from tanks so that they could then be counted.
Each tank contained about 50 shells.
One of the soldiers was positioned in the tank turret, another one atop the tank, and the third – the plaintiff – on the ground.
The incident took place in August 2010. At one point, the young man tried to straighten up, having just placed a tank shell on the ground. When he did, he felt a sharp pain in his back.
The soldier reported this to the officer overseeing the task. However, the officer did not pay attention to the complaint, ordering the conscript to carry on.
Once the task was completed, the soldier, in pain, trudged back to his quarters, where he was later examined by a military physician.
Later that month, the plaintiff visited a private doctor, and an MRI revealed that he had suffered a slipped disc.
In its ruling, the court found the Republic exclusively responsible for the plaintiff’s injury.
The conscript had previously – while at boot camp – suffered a hernia and had had an operation. He reported this to the officer when he was being assigned the task of transporting the tank shells.
Although the two incidents were separate, the judge said in his verdict that the officer should have taken into consideration the soldier’s prior injury and his complaint that he was in pain at the time.
The plaintiff was awarded €30,000 in general damages, plus €5918 in special damages, covering the cost to treat his injury.

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