Nash v Rochford Rural District Council: CA 1917

A claim was made against the local highway authority for personal injury resulting from the defective construction of a highway drain. The plaintiff failed to prove that the defendant highway authority had been responsible for the construction of the drain in question, but did satisfy the court of first instance that the drain had been constructed by the defendant’s predecessors in title and that their liability passed to the defendant by virtue of section 25 of the 1894 Act which transferred all rights and liabilities of the previous highway authorities.
Held: ‘liability’ within the meaning of section 25 of the 1894 Act was limited to liabilities that have already accrued at the time of transfer, as opposed to ‘potential or contingent’ liabilities. However the latter alternative would be inconsistent with the doctrine that highway authorities are not responsible for nonfeasance and that it was strongly influenced by this consideration. Warrington LJ: ‘Would the provisions of the Act of 1894 render the district council liable for the consequences of the negligent act of the surveyor? To so hold would, I think, be inconsistent with the doctrine now well established that a highway authority is responsible for misfeasance only, and though of course it is competent to Parliament to abolish that doctrine altogether, or to make it inapplicable where the act of misfeasance is that of a preceding authority, I do not think one ought to hold that such a result has happened unless the words are clear. In the present case I cannot find either in s.25 or in the definition in s.100 any sufficient intention to pass on the responsibility for a wrongful act not their own and by itself affording no cause of action. The preceding authority was not in fact under any liability inasmuch as the damage essential to the existence of liability had not arisen.’

Judges:

Warrington LJ, Scrutton LJ

Citations:

[1917] 1 KB 384

Statutes:

Local Government Act 1894 25

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedRegina v HM Attorney-General for Northern Ireland and Another Ex Parte Devine CANI 1992
An inquest was held into three deaths thought to be at the hands of British soldiers. The coroner had admitted written evidence from statements taken by British officers on the basis that the makers of the statements were not compellable as . .
CitedNational Grid Gas Plc, Regina (on the Application of) v The Environment Agency Admn 17-May-2006
The claimant sought a judicial review of the decision to hold them responsible for necessary works of remediation. They were statutory successors to British Gas Corporation.
Held: The legislation clearly attempted to hold the contaminator . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Local Government, Negligence

Updated: 11 June 2022; Ref: scu.242437