Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:59

From: Neil Foster

Subject: Duty / Standard / Foreseeability / Causation case

Dear David et al

Possibly this one:

Darby v National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty [2001] EWCA Civ 189 (2001) 3 L.G.L.R. 29 [2001] P.I.Q.R. P27 Times, February 23, 2001, 2001 WL 98075. There is a wife and an allegation of polluted water.

Result was generally affirmed in the House of Lords in Tomlinson v. Congleton Borough Council [2004] 1 AC 46.

For the HCA on diving cases see Vairy v Wyong Shire Council (2005) 221 ALR 711.

Regards
Neil F

Neil Foster
Senior Lecturer, LLB Program Convenor
Newcastle Law School
Faculty of Business & Law
MC158, McMullin Building
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308
AUSTRALIA
ph 02 4921 7430
fax 02 4921 6931

>>> DAVID CHEIFETZ 10/03/08 4:30 >>>

Dear all:

I recall reading an English case within the past few years - I think it's the latter half of the last century: the case that is, not my reading, that was this century - which had facts something like this. X and his girlfriend went for a boat ride on a local pond. X fell out and drowned. It was his own fault. It had nothing to do with the boat or any aspect of the pond - other than that it had water into which he fell.

It turned out that there should have been a keep off the water sign because the water was polluted. That sign had fallen down. The local council was "negligent" in not putting it back up, timely. The man's estate - or maybe it was his wife, not girlfriend - sued the county, alleging that she and X would not have gone boating had the sign been up, etc.

I think the action succeeded at first instance in a County Court decision but it was reversed on appeal.

Does anybody recall the case and the citation?

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