Kane v Howth Urban District Council

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Circuit Court
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1939
• Date: 01 January 1939

(Cir. Ct.),

Kane

and

Howth Urban District Council

Breach of duty -Repair of highway - Failure to leave road surface in safe condition - Granite slabs causing obstruction not removed - Misfeasance or non-feasance -Damage to user of highway - Liability of local authority.

Where a local authority in repairing a highway under its control negligently omits to do something which was required to be done to make the highway when repaired safe for traffic, such an omission may constitute an act of misfeasance and have the same legal consequence as the commission of something which ought not to have been done, and in the event of such act causing an injury to a user of the highway the local authority cannot then escape liability on the ground that the omission was merely an act of non-feasance. Accordingly, where the defendants had repaired portion of a highway but had omitted to remove a number of granite slabs surrounding what was formerly a public water pump standing in an area abutting...