The Lord Ordinary, in my view, was well entitled to reach the conclusion which he did. This is a study and analysis of the case Hughes v. Lord Advocate [1963] 1 The accident occurred in premises occupied by the corporation. HUGHES (A.P.)v. For these reasons, I differ, with respect, from the majority of the First Division, and I would allow the appeal. The Lord Advocate appeals under paragraph 13 of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act 1998 against the determination of a devolution issue by the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary (“the Facts. This is an appeal about an extradition order. was able to make it. The resulting damage, though severe, was not greater than or different in kind from that which might have been produced had the lamp spilled and produced a more normal conflagration in the hole. If these formed an allurement to children it might have been foreseen that they would play with the lamp, that it might tip over, that it might be broken, and that when broken the paraffin might spill and be ignited by the flame. In dismissing the appellant's claim the Lord Ordinary and the majority of the Judges of the First Division reached the conclusion that the accident which happened was not reasonably foreseeable. The dangerous allurement was left unguarded in a public highway in the heart of Edinburgh. No doubt it was not to be expected that the injuries would be as serious as those which the appellant in fact sustained. Did the explosion create an accident and damage of a different type from the misadventure and damage that could be foreseen? But because the explosion was the agent which caused the burning and was unforeseeable, therefore the accident, according to them, was not reasonably foreseeable. As to the liability of the Post Office, it was not, I think, ever seriously doubted that the standard of care required of them was the well-known standard thus described by Lord Atkin in Donoghue v. Stevenson . Furthermore, somewhere outside the tent they found a rope and a tin can (which apparently were no part of the Post Office material). See, for example, Hughes v Lord Advocate [1963] Parsons v Uttley Ingham & Co Ltd. [1978] Page v Smith [1996] Egg Shell Skull Principle: Hypersensitive Claimant Smith v Leech Brain & Co Ltd [1961], Robinson v Post Office [1974]) and applied it … Rouse v Squires (1973) ; subsequent medical negligence; subsequent acts of the claimant , eg, McKew v Holland Hannen & Cubitts (1969) , Wieland v Cyril Lord Carpets (1969 ) 4.7 Identification and explanation of the law; understanding of relevant case law: The Wagon Mound (No 1) (1961), Hughes v Lord Advocate (1963); acts of third parties, eg, Creating a unique profile web page containing interviews, posts, articles, as well as the cases you have appeared in, greatly enhances your digital presence on search engines such Google and Bing, resulting in increased client interest. Supposing the pursuer had on the day in question gone to the site and taken one of the lamps, and upset it over himself, thus setting his clothes alight, the person to be considered responsible for protecting children from the dangers to be found there would presumably have been liable. LORD HODGE: (with whom Lord Mance, Lord Sumption, Lord Reed and Lord Hughes agree) 1. In the list of “Common Law Cases” there are included such decisions as Donoghue v Stevenson: an authority in Common Law jurisdictions it may be, but a Common Law case it is not, nor indeed are Bourhill v Young, Hughes v Lord Advocate, or White & Carter Councils (Ltd) v McGregor, though they also appear in the same list. The allurement in this case was the combination of a red paraffin lamp, a ladder, a partially closed tent, and a cavernous hole within it, a setting well fitted to inspire some juvenile adventure that might end in calamity. Written and curated by real attorneys at Quimbee. The greater part of the path to injury had thus been trodden, and the mishandled lamp was quite likely at that stage to spill and cause a conflagration. ), United Kingdom House of Lords, case facts, key issues, and holdings and reasonings online today. See the comment by … This contention was rejected by the Lord Ordinary, who was in a better position than we are to judge of its validity. Instead, by some curious chance of combustion, it exploded and no conflagration occurred, it would seem, until after the explosion. If they meant no more than that, then their observations would be in line with the well-established principle that a pursuer must prove, in the sense of making it more probable than not, that the defender's breach of duty caused the accident; but then those observations would not help the respondent, because we know the cause of this accident. Hughes v Lord Advocate [1963] Humble v Hunter (1842) Hunt v Luck (1902) Hunter v Babbage [1994] Hunter v British Coal Corporation [1998] Hunter v Canary Wharf [1997] Hurst v Picture Theatres [1915] Hurstanger v Wilson [2007] Hussain v Lancaster City Council [2000] Hussein v Chong Fook Kam [1970] Hutchinson v UK [2015, ECtHR] Hutton v Warren [1836] No question as to trespassing has been raised before your Lordships. The Lord Advocates Office on behalf of the Royal … Get Hughes v. Lord Advocate, [1963] A.C. 837 (H.L. In the one case paraffin vapour and in the other case liquid paraffin is ignited by fire. It might very well be that paraffin lamps by themselves, if left in the open, are not potentially dangerous even to children. It is clear that the safety precautions taken by the Post Office did not in this instance measure up to Lord Atkin's test. although the damage mav be a good deal greater in extent than was foreseeable. Workmen were completing some underground maintenance of some telephone equipment, meaning they had to open a manhole cover. Info. The test might better be put thus: Was the igniting of paraffin outside the lamp by the flame a foreseeable consequence of the breach of duty? The cause of this accident was a known source of danger, the lamp, but it behaved in an unpredictable way. When the children did appear, they found good scope for moments of adventure. Get 1 point on providing a valid sentiment to this 12But note Hughes v. Lord Advocate [I9631 A.C. 837, 845 per Lord Reid: '[blut a defender is liable. It may be that what Lord Romer, and possibly also Lord Thankerton, had in mind was that, if the cause of an accident cannot be proved, then the accident may have been due to the intrusion of some new and unforeseeable cause like the falling of a ceiling, so that the damage cannot be said to have resulted from the defenders' breach of duty. A risk that he might in some way burn himself by playing with a lamp was translated into reality. Hughes v Lord Advocate. 11 Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society [1998] 1 WLR 896 at 912-13 per Lord Hoffman. Topic. In the circumstances, there was a combination of potentially dangerous circumstances against which the Post Office had to protect the appellant. After the pursuer tripped against the lamp and so caused it to fall into the manhole, and after he contrived to be drawn into or to be blown into or to fall into the manhole, he was burned. In my judgment it did not. The circumstance that an explosion as such could not have been contemplated does not alter the fact that it could reasonably have been foreseen that a boy who played in and about the canvas shelter and played with the things that were thereabouts might get hurt and might in some way burn himself. Lord ReidLord JenkinsLord Morris of Borth-y-GestLord GuestLordPearce. I think that it is to the same effect, but towards the end of his judgment he points out, I think rightly, that if the ceiling had fallen and upset the urn, the corporation could not have been liable merely because they had failed in a duty to clear the children away. He accidentally dropped it into an open manhole causing an explosion, burning him badly.. * Enter a valid Journal (must Click here to remove this judgment from your profile. The court found that the chain of events causing the explosion was not reasonably foreseeable. The experts agree that no one would have expected that to happen: it was so unlikely as to be unforeseeable. All these in fact occurred, but unexpectedly the mishandled lamp instead of causing an ordinary conflagration produced a violent explosion. But whether or not this be the position, there was ample evidence upon which the conclusion could be drawn that there was a reasonable probability of burning injuries if the children were allowed into the shelter with the lamp. Nearby also there were lighted lamps. It may be that that should be linked to an earlier passage: If that means that the mere fact that the way in which the accident happened could not be anticipated is enough to exclude liability although there was a breach of duty and that breach of duty in fact caused damage of a kind that could have been anticipated, then I am afraid that I cannot agree with Lord Thankerton. Then came disaster for the pursuer. >The extent of harm need not be foreseeable as long as the kind of harm is R.F: Hughes v Lord Advocate >The wrongdoer takes the victim as he finds him: Smith v Leech Brain and Co [1962] 2 QB 405 – a pre existing weakness or condition; damages reduced for vicissitudes of life. The manageress had given permission for a tea urn to be brought in by visitors and had not cleared some children out of the way. In agreement with Lord Carmont, I consider that the defenders do not avoid liability because they could not have foretold the exact way in which the pursuer would play with the alluring objects that had been left to attract him or the exact way in which in so doing he might get hurt. It was surrounded by a tent and some paraffin lamps were left to warn road users of the danger. But children did appear, and I find no reason to differ from the conclusion of the Lord Ordinary that the presence of children in the immediate vicinity of the shelter was reasonably to be anticipated. Pursuing their boyish whims, they must have thought that as a place for play it was bounteously equipped. They had no previous experience of traffic at any other time. 12 Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 KB 223 at 230 per Lord Greene MR. But different considerations apply when they are found in connexion with a shelter tent and a manhole, all of which are allurements to the inquisitive child. He has further held that in these circumstances "the normal dangers of such children falling into the manhole or being in some way injured by a lamp, particularly if it fell or broke, were such that a reasonable man would not have ignored them." In case of any confusion, feel free to reach out to us.Leave your message here. The only remaining question appears to be whether the occurrence of an explosion such as did in fact take place in the manhole was a happening which should reasonably have been foreseen by the Post Office employees. As a warning to traffic the workmen had set lighted red lamps round the tent which covered the manhole, and, if boys did enter the dark tent, it was very likely that they would take one of these lamps with them. On the other hand, if the lamp, when the boy upset it, exploded in his face, he would have had no remedy because the explosion was an event which could not reasonably be foreseen. This is the critical point in the case, and I think I should next refer to some of the observations upon it by the Lord Ordinary, the Lord President and Lord Sorn and Lord Guthrie. It is true that the duty of care expected in cases of this sort is confined to reasonably foreseeable dangers, but it does not necessarily follow that liability is escaped because the danger actually materialising is not identical with the danger reasonably foreseen and guarded against. Edit. It was argued that the appellant cannot recover because the damage which he suffered was of a kind which was not foreseeable. Share Judgment Link Share Judgment as PDF Judgment Link Send This Link To. That is just what happened. Important Scottish delict case decided by the House of Lords on causation. Judgement for the case Hughes v Lord Advocate of Scotland. The explosion caused the boy to fall into the manhole: whether his injuries were directly caused by the explosion or aggravated by fire which started in the manhole is not at all clear. Lord Thankerton said that, even if he had held that the manageress was in breach of duty, "I would hold that the respondents must fail here as they have not proved what the event was that caused the accident." 7-192; Markesinis and Deakin at 198. Citation Codes. HUGHES (A.P.) It was for the defenders to show by evidence that, although this was a public street, the presence of children there was so little to be expected that a reasonable man might leave the allurement unguarded. For all the argumentation of Lord Pearce and Diplock, L.J., it is submitted that there was no indisputably correct theoretical answer on this basis to the argument of plaintiff's counsel. ... PDF/Print Close. The Solicitor-General endeavoured to limit the extent of fore-seeability in this connexion by reference to certain passages in the evidence regarding the safety of the red paraffin lamps. All England Reporter/2016/July/*The Christian Institute and others v The Lord Advocate - [2016] All ER (D) 156 (Jul) [2016] All ER (D) 156 (Jul) *The Christian Institute and others v The Lord Advocate [2016] UKSC 51 Supreme Court Lady Hale DP, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lord Hughes and Lord … Edit source History Talk (0) Comments Share. The difficulty is caused by further observations of Lord Thankerton and by the judgment of Lord Romer. It was entirely dependent on the experience of the Post Office employees during the preceding five days of the week. Nearby was a section of a ladder. But this, in my opinion, is to concentrate on what is really a non-essential element in the dangerous situation created by the allurement. 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