Company fined £1.3m over death of woman hit by debris in Storm Doris to face disciplinary hearing
A company that was fined more than a million pounds over health and safety law breaches after a woman was hit and killed by debris in Wolverhampton will next week face a disciplinary hearing.
Tahnie Martin, aged 29, from Stafford, was struck by a wooden panel torn from its "rotten fixings" on the roof of the Mander Centre on February 23, 2017, during Storm Doris.
Cushman and Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung Ltd, which was the managing agent responsible for centre maintenance at the time, admitted breaches of health and safety rules and was fined £1.3 million by Wolverhampton Crown Court in 2019 over maintenance to the exterior of the Blackrock Building.
The company is now set to face a disciplinary panel hearing brought by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – the global professional body for surveyors – on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
The hearing will take place virtually on Microsoft Teams on January 10 and January 11.
It said the firm could be liable for disciplinary action in accordance with RICS bye-laws over the breaches the company admitted in 2019, contrary to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Another formal charge by RICS said the company's actions over maintenance of the building during its time as a property manager for the Mander Centre, between April 2011 and February 23, 2017, could be contrary to rule four of the Rules of Conduct for Firms 2007.
Prosecutors said the firm, during the court case in 2019, had overseen "systemic" and "serious" maintenance failings. An inquest concluded a plant room on top of the roof, from which the panel was ripped away, may not have been maintained for nearly two decades.
At the sentencing hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Mrs Justice Carr said the company "failed to identify" two brick structures on the plant roof altogether.
She said: "By February 23, the parts intended to secure structures to the brick were entirely rotten and corroded.
"Unable to withstand winds of up to 59mph, they were simply blown away."
Speaking outside court at the time, Cushman & Wakefield chief executive, Colin Wilson, said the company, which manages more than 650 other buildings, had "learned lessons" and changed its inspection regime since the incident.
