A judge has overturned a ruling ordering Rochester Cathedral to pay £21,597 to a man who tripped on a small piece of concrete on the cathedral estate.
The case tests the extent of liability occupiers of land have when someone is injured on their property.
The claim was brought by a claimant called Leonard Debell. According to the ruling, he tripped over a small lump of concrete that protruded from a traffic bollard while on the way to meet friends for lunch in June 2010. The fall brought on a hernia, and also injured his shoulder.
The bollard that caused the trip was one of two that were placed at the end of a road to stop traffic access. They were about two feet apart and linked by a chain. Cars had hid the bollards in the past, knocking them off vertical and damaging the concrete.
Debell sued under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, and was awarded the damages following a trial at Lewes County Court earlier this year.
But judges at the Court of Appeal today overturned the ruling. Elias J said in his judgment today that it was “a most unfortunate accident but not one for which the cathedral should be liable”.
In his ruling Elias, said that “the obligation of the occupier is to make the land reasonably safe for visitors, not to guarantee their safety.”
“In order to impose liability, there must be something over and above the risk of injury from the minor blemishes and defects which are habitually found on any road or pathway,” he said. “The law has to strike a balance between the nature and the extent of the risk on the one hand and the cost of eliminating it on the other.”
Dean and Chapter of Rochester Cathedral v Mr Leonard Debell.
Court of Appeal (Hallett LJ, Elias LJ) 9 November 2016
