''Roles v Nathan (t/a Manchester Assembly Rooms)''

963 Year 963 (Roman numerals, CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 39, probably of poison administered by his wife, Emp ...

1 WLR 1117,

2 All ER 908 is an

occupiers' liability Occupiers' liability is a field of tort law, codified in statute, which concerns the duty of care owed by those who occupy real property, through ownership or lease, to people who visit or trespass. It deals with liability that may arise from ac ...

case in

English tort law English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil law, rather than English criminal law, crimi ...

. It concerns s.2(3)(b) of the

Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 The Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 ( 5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. 31) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that covers occupiers' liability. The result of the Third Report of the Law Reform Committee, the act was introduced to Parliament as t ...

, which states,

"An occupier may expect that a person, in the exercise of his calling, will appreciate and guard against special risks ordinarily incident to it, so far as the occupier leaves him free to do so."

It also laid down an example of the scope of an occupier's defence when workmen are warned of some danger before they do a job at the occupier's premises. The judges in the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

were

Lord Denning MR Alfred Thompson Denning, Baron Denning, (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999), was an English barrister and judge. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when he w ...

, Harman LJ, and (in dissent) Pearson LJ.

Facts

Two chimney sweeps were sealing up a sweep hole in a flue.

Carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

came through. They had been warned repeatedly and told not to stay in too long, and not to work while a fire was alight. Once already, they had been dragged out for not doing as they were told. They died while working when the fire was burning. The widows sued the occupier. The facts in Lord Denning MR's words follow.

Judgment

It was held that the warnings were enough for the occupiers to fall within the s.2(4)(a) OLA 1957 defence. Moreover, the occupier was under no

duty of care In Tort, tort law, a duty of care is a legal Law of obligations, obligation that is imposed on an individual, requiring adherence to a standard of care, standard of Reasonable person, reasonable care to avoid careless acts that could foreseeab ...

, because under s.2(3)(b) the risk was incident to the workmen's calling, a danger they could have been expected to guard against. Pearson LJ dissented, but as he made clear this was on the basis of what he saw the evidence of the workers' conduct to be. He thought because the chimney sweeps had not lit the fire, and did not know of it, this danger was beyond their calling, under s.2(3)(b) and that for s.2(4)(a) the warnings were not enough, because the defendant's agent (i.e. the caretaker) had lit a fire, which produced the deadly fumes, and the warning could not change that. Lord Denning MR's judgment continues below. After Harman LJ delivered a concurring judgment, Pearson LJ stated he could not agree with his brethren's view of the evidence, and after rehearsing the facts, he said why.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roles V Nathan Lord Denning cases English tort case law 1963 in British law English occupier case law Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases 1963 in case law

Facts

Judgment

See also

Notes