A tree shed a limb onto a passer-by, causing personal injury. The Court of Appeal reversed the original finding in favour of the claimant because the defect could not have been discovered by inspection. A land-owner may become liable for a naturally occurring danger arising on his land if he fails to remedy it within a reasonable time of being made aware of it, or from when he ought to have been aware of it. Rowlatt J said: ‘a person is liable for a nuisance constituted by the state of his property: (1) if he causes it; (2) if by neglect of some duty he allowed it to arise; and (3) if, when it has arisen without his own act or default, he omits to remedy it within a reasonable time after he did or ought to have become aware of it’. However: ‘I see no ground for holding that the owner is to become an insurer of nature, or that default is to be imputed to him until it appears, or would appear upon proper inspection, that nature can no longer be relied upon . .’
Rowlatt J
[1926] 2 KB 332
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Chapman v London Borough of Barking and Dagenham CA 13-Jul-1998
The plaintiff was severely injured when a branch was broken from a tree in a high wind, and fell onto the van he was driving. The land-owner appealed a finding of liability in nuisance.
Held: The local authority were also the highway . .
Cited – Leakey v The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty CA 31-Jul-1979
Natural causes were responsible for soil collapsing onto neighbouring houses in Bridgwater.
Held: An occupier of land owes a general duty of care to a neighbouring occupier in relation to a hazard occurring on his land, whether such hazard is . .
Cited – Stagecoach South Western Trains Ltd v Hind and Another TCC 11-Jun-2014
A train crash was caused when an ash tree fell from the defendant’s land across the railway line. The company sought damages from the land-owner.
Held: The land-owner’s duty extended no further than the carrying out of periodic informal or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.216495