The family of a man fatally crushed while working with cattle on a property in western Victoria is suing his employer, claiming they knew he'd been left with no escape route.
Patrick Smith was killed in December 2017 in the stockyards of a property at Dunkeld, near Hamilton.
He was drafting and weighing cattle when he was crushed by a stag, which is a bull castrated after maturity.
The animal, weighing more than 600 kilograms, was still aggressively trying to break through a fence when help arrived, and was destroyed.
Mr Smith's wife Kellie and their three children have filed a lawsuit in Victoria's Supreme Court, alleging his Warrnambool-based employer Midfield Meat had failed to create a safe workplace.
They also say the company knew the stag that killed Mr Smith was aggressive, they failed to make sure it was moved from the mob and to ensure that the yards he was working in were suitable for a mob including that stag.
Mr Smith, who had worked for the company as a livestock buyer since 1991, was also left without an adequate escape route, they claim.
The family is seeking damages for psychological injury, loss and damage.
As well as Mr Smith's income, the family's farming property also earned money agisting stock for Midfield Meat, the lawsuit says.
In a tribute after his death, Ms Smith said her husband had loved his job.
"We used to laugh that he knew every farm's gate from here to Adelaide, to Swan Hill and Echuca - he just loved it," she said.
