Supervisor guilty of criminal negligence in death of teenage worker on Fredericton job site

A judge has found a construction supervisor guilty of criminal negligence in the 2018 death of an employee in Fredericton.

Court of King's Bench Justice Thomas Christie said Jason King's actions showed "a wanton and reckless disregard" for the safety of Michael Henderson, his 18-year-old employee, who died while working on a construction site at Fredericton's wastewater treatment plant.

"The factor in this case I find most difficult to understand is Mr. King's attention to the safety of Mr. Henderson's was nowhere close to what was minimally required of him," Christie said moments before announcing his verdict.

"In this case I find [King] did nothing he was required to do."

As Christie announced his decision, an audible reaction of relief could be heard from the courtroom gallery, where the family of Henderson sat.

King showed no emotional reaction as Christie delivered his verdict.

Diane Henderson, Michael Henderson's mother, chose to keep her comments to reporters brief, following the decision.

"Everybody's loved one should return from work," she said.

The trial before a judge alone lasted three weeks and heard from several witnesses, including King himself, who was employed by Springhill Construction and was the supervisor for the project at the time.

Testimony revealed the work involved constructing a large concrete pool-like structure, known as a clarifier, at the City of Fredericton's sewage plant on Barker Street.

The clarifier had a hole in the middle, and at the bottom of that hole was a horizontal pipe running several metres to the bottom of a nearby manhole.

In the weeks leading up to Henderson's death, King discussed plans to use a large inflatable plug to seal the horizontal pipe and then fill the manhole with water to test whether the pipe was watertight.

On the morning of Aug. 16, Henderson was cleaning out the bottom of the hole at the centre of the clarifier.

Jason King started filling the manhole with water shortly before noon that day and kept it running as Henderson and other workers went for lunch.

Henderson resumed work around 12:30 p.m, and shortly before 1 p.m. the plug slid out of the pipe while he was in the hole, pinning him to the wall as water rose above his head. He remained under water for several minutes before first responders were able to free him.

Judge cites several missteps

For King's trial, Crown prosecutors had to convince Christie that King's actions constituted a marked and substantial departure from what a reasonable person in his position would do.

Christie spent part of the morning summarizing key testimony given by workers on the site that morning, including from King himself.

Christie said from the evidence, he found King failed to do a number of things to ensure the safety of Henderson and other workers on the site while conducting the test involving water.

Christie first drew on King's own testimony, in which he admitted to not reading any of Springhill Construction's safety manuals, nor reading about his duties as supervisor, as set out under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Christie also noted that King failed to identify the eight-foot-deep, four-foot-wide hole Henderson was working in as a "confined space," and that he took no special precautions required by law for confined spaces.

"The most extensive plan Mr. King developed was that someone would be there to pull him out in the need for a rescue," said Christie.

More crucially, Christie said King failed to inform Henderson the leak test was being done and the inherent risk involved with him working in the hole while the plug was holding back thousands of litres of water.

"This lack of sharing with workers that the leak test was about to begin, was … a failure of Mr. King," Christie said.

"It meant Mr. Henderson had no legitimate opportunity to refuse work that was then becoming exponentially unsafe, as was his legal right to do."

Sentencing Sept. 11

Following the verdict, legal counsel agreed to return to court on Sept. 11 for King's sentencing.

With the conviction, King faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

King was not in custody for the duration of the trial and Christie allowed for that to continue until his sentencing, with the condition that he make no contact with Henderson's family.