Occupiers liability is under the spotlight in the Appeal Court this week in a case of considerable significance for those with day-to-day control of property.
The case centres on an accident in which a student dived into a swimming pool at his college and suffered catastrophic injuries.
In the High Court the governors of Harpers Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Shropshire, were held 60% liable for the accident. The judge said they knew that the culture at the college was “very beery” and that students regularly went to the pool very late at night after heavy drinking.
That decision is now under appeal. Counsel for the college, Anthony Goldstaub QC, claims that, because the student was a trespasser, it was unprecedented for the court to find the college liable under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984.
He argues that the pool was closed and locked and that entry was prohibited. In those circumstances he claims that the college were not in breach of any duty to the plaintiff.
Ratcliff v Harper Adams Agricultural College, Court of Appeal (Stuart-Smith, Thorpe and Mummery LJJ) November 19 1998.
Anthony Goldstaub QC and Toby Hooper (instructed by Oldham Rust Jobson, of Stafford) appeared for the appellants; Richard Lissack QC and Hywel Jenkins (instructed by Cunningham John & Co, of Thetford) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 20/11/98
