Doyle v Magill
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judge | Mr Justice McCracken |
| Judgment Date | 11 March 1999 |
| Neutral Citation | [1999] IEHC 127 |
| Court | High Court |
| Date | 11 March 1999 |
[1999] IEHC 127
THE HIGH COURT
BETWEEN
AND
Citations:
OCCUPIERS LIABILITY ACT 1995
INDERMAUR V DAMES LR 1 CP 274
O'DONOGHUE V GREENE 1967 IR 40
LONG V SAORSTAT & CONTINENTAL STEAMSHIP CO LTD 93 ILTR 137
O'KEEFFE V IRISH MOTOR INNS 1978 IR 85
Words & Phrases:
Subject Headings:
While the plaintiff sustained personal injuries when he fell into an area surrounding the basement of a three-storey Georgian house after attending a New Year's party there, the liability of the of the defendant occupier fell to be determined under the common law rules that pre-existed the Occupiers Liability Act, 1995. The test as to whether the danger of an open unfenced area in front of the basement was unusual was an objective one. The class of persons to whom the plaintiff belonged ought to have known that such a basement area in a very old house of this type was not uncommon in rural Ireland and the existence of an area of this nature was not unusual. By walking on a flower-bed, on which he had either tripped or slipped on a loose stone and fell into the basement area, in circumstances where he could not see where he was going the plaintiff was not using reasonable care for his own safety. The High Court so held in dismissing the plaintiff's claim.
JUDGMENT of Mr Justice McCrackendelivered the 11th day of March,1999.
This is an action for damages for personal injuries suffered by the Plaintiff when he fell into a basement area forming part of the Defendant's premises. The circumstances surrounding the accident are reasonably simple. The Plaintiff is a substantial farmer and lives about a mile from the house where the accident took place. The Defendant's premises which are known as Churchtown House Beaufort County Kerry were not at the time actually occupied by the Defendant, but were occupied by a farm manager employed by him namely a Mr Timothy Thompson.
To understand what occurred it is necessary to describe the Defendant's premises. It is an old Georgian house standing three storeys over basement with a farmyard at the rear of the house. There is a driveway from the road which leads on to a large gravelled area stretching across the entire front of the house. The house itself is double fronted with a hall door in the middle. Between the gravelled area and the house itself there is a flower bed with roses in it on each side of the hall door which at the relevant point was about three feet two inches in width. The flower bed on the gravelled side is edged with stones up to threeinches in height and on the far side of the flowerbed there is a row of bricks laid flat. Beyond this there is a sunken area, described by some witnesses as a moat approximately three feet in width with a drop of five feet seven inches. This area is clearly there to allow light to penetrate through the windows of the basement. The entrance to the house consists of two steps up from the gravelled area onto what is in effect a bridge over the basement area leading to the front door. There are two large windows on the ground floor on each side of the entrance.
On the evening of 2nd January, 1992 Mr Thompson gave a New Year's party for some of the neighbours and the Plaintiff and his wife were invited. They arrived at the Defendant's house at about 8.00 pm and parked the car on the gravel facing in towards the house in front of one of the ground floor windows. The front of the car was up against the rose-bed. It was, of course, dark when they arrived and there were no lights on in the basement although there were lights in the ground floor rooms. There was also a light immediately above the front door. The Plaintiff and his wife left the party at about 11.00 pm. The Plaintiff walked over to his car leaving his wife talking to a neighbour at the front door. He opened the passenger door of the car which was on the side nearest to the front door, and then started to walk across the front of the car to get to the driver's door. This of course entailed him...
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