The Brick found guilty of three safety violations in death of Halifax employee

HALIFAX, N.S. — The Brick has been found guilty on three of four Occupational Health and Safety Act charges it faced in connection with the 2020 death of an employee at its Halifax store.

Martin David, a 47-year-old delivery driver, was found lying on the floor of a darkened washroom at the company’s Bayers Lake warehouse on the morning of June 9, 2020.

David had walked into the employees’ bathroom a few minutes earlier after taking a fall while loading a delivery truck at the store.

Another worker discovered David lying in front of the urinals. The washroom was in complete darkness because the lights in parts of the store were programmed to be off overnight until 10 a.m., when the store opened to the public.

David was unresponsive at first. He then vomited several times and struggled to form responses to questions.

When paramedics attended, David was heard telling them that his head hurt. He was transported to hospital, where he died the next day.

An autopsy revealed the father of four from Hammonds Plains had died from blunt-force head trauma.

David’s father contacted the provincial Labour Department on June 11, 2020, to report his son had suffered a brain injury at his workplace.

Sometime after the incident, The Brick’s lighting contractor readjusted the system so that the lighting in the washroom area was on when workers were present.

An investigator with the Labour Department’s occupational health and safety division obtained a warrant to search the furniture and appliances store in September 2021 – 15 months after David’s death – and laid four charges in November 2021.

The Brick’s trial was held in Halifax provincial court over four days this April.

Judge Elizabeth Buckle rendered the verdict last week, finding the company guilty of failing to ensure the bathroom was adequately illuminated and failing to ensure its policies for accident injury investigation and lighting were adequate and implemented.

The judge acquitted the company on the fourth charge: failing to notify the Labour Department of a workplace accident within 24 hours.

Buckle’s oral decision did not include the reasons for her findings. She said she would be providing a written decision to counsel – Crown attorney Alex Keaveny and defence lawyers Ron Pizzo and Ron Pink – as soon as possible.

The lawyers will return to court on Friday to set dates for the sentencing hearing.