O'Rourke v Gunning [Supreme Court.]

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 11 February 1941
• Date: 11 February 1941
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

O'Rourke

and

Gunning

-Emergency - Reasonableness of means adopted in the emergency -Prohibition against doing specific act - Extent of prohibition - Onus of proof on appeal to Supreme Court - Sufficiency of evidence to support the finding of the Circuit Court Judge.

Applicant was a domestic servant in the employment of the respondent at a three-storey house, consisting of a self-contained flat in the basement, and two upper storeys, which were occupied by the respondent. The applicant was sent one morning to the butcher's for meat, and when she returned she found that she had brought the wrong key of the house with her and could not get in. She knocked several times to get admittance but without effect. The respondent's wife, who was the only person in the respondent's portion of the house at the time, was in delicate health and was resting in bed, and there was evidence that she did not answer knocks at the door in the mornings. The applicant, having failed to get admittance through the front door, went to the basement, and the occupier of the basement let her into it. She then went to the garden at the back of the house where she got a ladder which she placed against the window of the first storey and started to climb theladder to gain admittance to the respondent's premises, and while doing so she slipped and injured herself. There was evidence that the respondent had seen the applicant using a...