Wall v Morrissey

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1971
• Date: 01 January 1971
• Docket Number: [1966. No. 425 P.]
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

Wall

and

Morrissey

Trench in public highway opened and refilled - Public nuisance - Plaintiffcyclist injured - Whether necessary for plaintiff to prove that defendant could have foreseen the risk of injury.

The defendant wanted to provide a water supply for cattle troughs on his land and he obtained the permission of the local authority to make a trench in the adjoining public highway for the purpose of laying water pipes across the highway. On the 16th March, 1965, a contractor, employed by the defendant, opened a trench across the highway, laid the water pipes amd refilled the trench to the level of the surrounding roadway. On the next day the defendant added more filling material, at 9 a.m. and again at 5 p.m., to the surface of the refilled trench in order to compensate for subsidence which had occurred. At 10.15 p.m. on that day the plaintiff was injured when he fell from his bicycle as he was crossing the refilled trench. The plaintiff claimed damages from the defendant in the High Court and alleged that the defendant had been negligent and that he had also created a public nuisance. The plaintiff asked the trial judge to leave the issue of public nuisance, as well as the issue of negligence, to be decided by the jury because the question of whether the risk of injury to the plaintiff was reasonably foreseeable by the defendant was not a relevant factor (the plaintiff submitted) in determining the plaintiff's right to damages for injuries caused by a public nuisance created and maintained by the...