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PI Brief Update

Back to Basics in Occupiers Liability - Flora Wood, Ashfords Solicitors

15/01/15. The recent case of Burtcher v Southend-on-Sea BC helps to identify those cases where a system of inspection and risk assessments is crucial to a successful defence, and those where it makes no difference because the hazard is plain to see and had been present for some time.

In this case B had been visiting her parents who lived in sheltered housing owned by the local authority. B had fallen whilst walking along a tarmac path that ran diagonally from the rear entrance to the building. Beside the path was an area of patchy grass. The Court accepted that B had fallen when she stepped half on and half off the path.

There was a difference in level between the path and the earth of just over two-and-a-half inches...

Image ©iStockphoto.com/marcoventuriniautieri

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.