Cooney v Dockrell Sons Ltd and Another

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1965
• Date: 01 January 1965
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

Cooney

and

Dockrell & Sons Ltd. and Another

Debris obstructing passageway in timber yard - "Unusual danger" -Accident to carter while delivering plywood to yard - Invitee's knowledge of obstruction - Liability of occupier - Liability of employer.

The plaintiff was employed as a carter by Messrs. F. Ltd., the second named defendant, and was delivering a load of plywood to D. Ltd.'s yard, in pursuance of a contract between the two defendants. Delivery was made by a horse drawn lorry. This was a task the plaintiff had performed on many previous occasions and he was aware that he was expected to deliver the load to the entrance to the plywood shed. To reach this shed he had to drive or lead his horse along a narrow passage between piled stacks of timber which were stacked on each side of the passage, and then he had to make a right angle turn around one of the stacks so as to enter another narrow passage, leading between similar stacks to the shed door. To make this turn with a horse and laden lorry was a difficult performance and it was made more difficult by a heap or heaps of the debris of a timber yard over or through which the lorry had to pass. On the 29th March, 1960, when the plaintiff reached the turn he found the passage obstructed on the left centre by the usual waste matter found in a timber yard, which accumulated to a height of two or three feet. The left wheels of the lorry would have to pass over this pile of rubbish if he were to reach the shed. On previous occasions he had been advised by a foreman of the yard to surmount similar, but smaller, heaps. On this occasion the plaintiff attempted to pass over the rubbish and managed to get the left front wheel over the heap but the left rear wheel stuck. The weight of the lorry compressed the rubbish but the left side of the lorry was still about a foot higher than the right side. The plaintiff, with the assistance of a fellow employee of F...