The plaintiffs, London barge repairers claimed after an explosion on the Anglo-American Oil Company’s oil tank barge Warwick, when she was being repaired by the plaintiffs, to whom she had been sent for that purpose by the defendants. As a result of the explosion several lives were lost and considerable damage done. In the second action, which was in the nature of a test action, the plaintiff, a boilermaker employed by Messrs Hodge and Sons, claimed damages for personal injuries caused by the explosion.
Held: Scrutton LJ said: ‘Personally, I do not understand the difference between a thing dangerous in itself, as poison, and a thing not dangerous as a class, but by negligent construction dangerous as a particular thing. The latter, if anything, seems the more dangerous of the two; it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing instead of an obvious wolf.’ and ‘The law, therefore, seems to be: (1) That if the barge which has carried petrol is an article dangerous in itself, it is the duty of the owners to take proper and reasonable precautions to prevent its doing damage to people likely to come into contact with it. These precautions may be fulfilled by entrusting it to a competent person with reasonable warning of its dangerous character, if that danger is not obvious. If such precautions are not taken, the owner will be liable to third persons with whom he has no contact for damage done by the barge, which they could not have avoided with reasonable care. . . (2) If the barge which has carried petrol is not dangerous in itself, but becomes dangerous because it has been insufficiently cleaned, and the owner is ignorant of the danger, the owner is not liable for damage caused by it to persons with whom he has no contract. (Earl v Lubbock [1905] 1 K.B. 253) . . (3) In the case of a thing dangerous in itself, where either the danger is obvious or the owner has given proper warning to the person entrusted with it, not being his servant, the owner is not liable for negligence of such person causing injury to a third party; such negligence is nova causa interveniens.’
Bankes LJ: ‘It is in these circumstances that the question of liability arises. The Anglo-American Oil Co were, in my opinion, under a double duty, (a) the duty of using reasonable means for securing the efficient cleaning out of the tank, and (b) the duty of giving any necessary warning of the dangerous character of the tank even after a proper and sufficient cleaning. The first duty, in my opinion, extended to all those who necessarily came into contact with the tank in the course of carrying out the repairs, including therefore the plaintiff Willmott. With regard to the second duty, a warning would not, in my opinion, be required where the person who would otherwise be entitled to warning was already aware of the danger, or […] might reasonably be assumed to be aware of it. Messrs Miller obviously required no warning; they were perfectly well aware of the danger. Messrs Hodges were in relation to the Anglo-American Oil Co in a different position to Messrs Miller: but I assume that the Anglo-American Oil Co were aware that the barge was being sent to Messrs Hodges for repair. If so, Messrs Hodges would be entitled to a warning unless they, like Messrs Miller, are to be taken to have been aware of the danger. Having regard to what must be the state of knowledge among ship and barge repairers on the Thames as to the danger of dealing with cleaned petrol tanks, I think that the Anglo-American Oil Co were entitled to assume that Messrs Hodges needed no warning as to that danger. . . I do not think that the present is a case in which the Anglo-American Oil Co were under any duty to Messrs Hodges’ workmen to give them any individual warning. Whether a warning to an employer of the dangerous character of an article sent to him for repair is a sufficient warning to the workmen directed by the employer to carry out those repairs must be a question of fact depending upon the particular circumstances of each case. There are in this case, in my opinion, no such special circumstances as placed the Anglo-American Oil Co under any duty to give any warning to the plaintiff Willmott or to the other employees of Messrs Hodges.’
Judges:
Scrutton LJ, Bankes LJ
Citations:
(1922) 12 Ll L Rep 183
Citing:
Cited – Caledonian Ry Co v Mulholland or Warwick HL 1898
The appellant company were held not liable for injuries caused by a defective brake on a coal wagon conveyed by the railway company to a point in the transit where their contract ended, and where the wagons were taken over for haulage for the last . .
Cited – Dominion Natural Gas Co Ltd v Collins 1909
The defendants had installed a gas apparatus to provide natural gas on the premises of a railway company. They had installed a regulator to control the pressure and their men negligently made an escape-valve discharge into the building instead of . .
Cited by:
Cited – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Cited – McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd OHCS 31-May-2005
The pursuer sought damages after her husband’s death from lung cancer. She said that the defenders were negligent in having continued to sell him cigarettes knowing that they would cause this.
Held: The action failed. The plaintiff had not . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Negligence
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.197988