Swift v Westport Urban District Council

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1945
• Date: 01 January 1945
• Court: Supreme Court

(H.C., S.C.),

Swift

and

Westport Urban District Council

Highway authority - Gully-trap erected on highway by local sanitary authority and maintained by them - Duty of local sanitary authority under the Public Health (Ir.) Act, 1878, effectively to drain their district -Whether gully-trap an allurement to children playing on the highway - Whether gully-trap a concealed danger - Child injured while meddling with gully-trap - Liability of local sanitary authority - Duty of local sanitary authority when laying sewers and gully-traps - Standard of duty to those using highway - Public Health (Ir.) Act,1878 (41 42 Vict. c. 52), s. 17.

Plaintiff, an infant, aged five years, sued the defendants, the local sanitary authority for the town of West-port, claiming damages for personal injuries sustained by her as a result of the negligence of the defendants. When the plaintiff was playing on the highway in West-port she opened a gully-trap placed in the highway by the defendants as sanitary authority to carry away surface water. The lid of the gully-trap fell on the plaintiff's leg causing her injuries. The gully-trap, which was set in that portion of the highway which consisted of a water channel running close to the kerb, consisted of a cast iron box with a hinged cover: there was no locking device to fasten the cover but considerable pressure was required to lift it. Children habitually played in the street where the gully-trap was, but no accident of this type had been reported to the defendants. The defendants, as sanitary authority, were required by s. 17 of the Public Health (Ir.) Act, 1878, to keep in repair all sewers belonging to them, and to cause to be made such sewers as might be necessary for effectually draining their district for the purposes of the Act. The Circuit Court Judge held that the defendants were liable and awarded the plaintiff damages. On the hearing of an appeal by the defendants to the High Court on Circuit Gavan Duffy J. stated a Case for the decision of the Supreme Court, the questions of law submitted for decision being: —(1) whether the plaintiff ought to be non-suited as a trespasser, and (2) whether the gully-trap so placed and constructed, was in law capable of constituting an allurement of such a character as to entitle the plaintiff, if she were not non-suited as a trespasser, to succeed in the action. The Supreme Court (Sullivan C.J., Murnaghan, O'Byrne and Black JJ.) answered the two questions as follows: Per Murnaghan...