The deceased man, the father of the plaintiff, had taken an unfurnished house from the defendants, who had installed a gas boiler with a special gas-burner which if properly regulated required no flue. The deceased and his wife were killed by fumes from the apparatus.
Held: The apparatus was part of the realty and the landlord did not know of the danger, and was not liable. The court discussed the result if it had ben a chattel. It was not easy to reconcile all the authorities, and there was no authority binding on the Court of Appeal that a person selling an article which he did not know to be dangerous can be held liable to a person with whom he has made no contract by reason of the fact that reasonable inquiries might have enabled him to discover that the article was in fact dangerous.
The general rule at common law was also applied by analogy to a vendor of land. Scrutton LJ said: ‘Now it is at present well established English law that, in the absence of express contract, a landlord of an unfurnished house is not liable to his tenant, or a vendor of real estate to his purchaser, for defects in the house or land rendering it dangerous or unfit for occupation, even if he has constructed the defects himself or is aware of their existence. ‘
Greer LJ , Scrutton LJ
[1932] 1 KB 458
Lord Campbell’s ActFatal Accidents Act 1846
England and Wales
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Negligence, Land
Updated: 18 December 2021; Ref: scu.188796
