A Sydney construction boss ignored warnings that a wall weighing half a tonne needed to be braced before it toppled down on bricklayer David Hands, a jury has heard.
"No, that's fine, I've done heaps of them and it'll be all right," Wayne Moore is said to have told the foreman at a North Bondi construction site in 2003 after hearing of his concerns.
But three days after the wall was built on Friday the 13th that June, Moore was at St Vincent's Hospital, formally identifying the body of his friend and employee Mr Hands.
On the opening day of Moore's manslaughter trial in the Downing Centre District Court, Crown prosecutor Huw Baker told the jury they would hear expert evidence that the brick wall Moore was warned about was "essentially unstable", and that it could have weighed between 470 and 602 kilograms.
The wall was to form part of a kitchen in a block of flats, and a ceiling and cupboards were to be built later that would secure the wall in place, Mr Baker said.
But the brickwork was allegedly left unbraced for nearly three days before it fell.
"The wall was teetering on the verge of collapse," Mr Baker told the jury.
He said Mr Hands was crushed under the wall as he leaned over to reach something in his tool box on a sunny winter's morning 11 years ago.
The 62-year-old's horrific injuries included internal bleeding, rib fractures, a fractured sternum and pelvis, and head and abdominal injuries, Mr Baker said.
Moore has pleaded not guilty to negligently causing Mr Hands' death, and the defence case is expected to be outlined on Tuesday before Judge Peter Whitford.
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