The appellants operated a chemical plant. When the plant was shut down for its annual maintenance, an independent firm repaired a tank lining. An employee of that firm was working by electric light. He had to clean the tank with acetone and resin. The acetone was in a bucket retreived from a refuse bin. While applying the acetone, the light bulb broke, and the acetone vapour exploded burning him.
Held: Whether a company was conducting an undertaking as against non-employees is always a question of the facts of the case. The sole issue was whether the fact that RGP were independent contractors took the work outside the scope of Octel’s undertaking. Having correctly ruled that it did not, the judge assumed that the matter was no longer in issue. But there remained a question of fact which it was strictly speaking for the jury to decide. Despite the error it was difficult to see what evidence could have been brought to exonerate the company, and the proviso was applied.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor, Lord Goff of Chieveley, Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, Lord Mustill, Lord Hoffmann
Citations:
Times 15-Nov-1996, [1996] UKHL 1, [1996] ICR 972, [1996] 4 All ER 846, [1996] 1 WLR 1543, [1997] Crim LR 355, [1997] IRLR 123
Links:
Statutes:
Health and Safety at Work Act 1984 1 3(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Doubted – RMC Roadstone Products Ltd v Jester QBD 8-Feb-1994
The employers engaged contractors to repair a building. The employers were going to buy new asbestos sheets for the purpose but the contractors offered to remove some from an adjacent disused factory. The employers obtained the permission of the . .
Cited – Austin Rover Group Ltd v Her Majesty’s Inspector of Factories HL 1990
The relevant factors in the phrase the words ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ are the foreseeable risk of injury and the cost of the preventive measures. ‘Sections 2 and 3 impose duties in relation to safety on a single person, whether an . .
Cited – Regina v Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd CA 1982
The defendants did not warn a contractor’s workmen of the risk of fire from an oxygen-enriched atmosphere. As a result, one of them accidentally started a fire in which eight employees died.
Held: The employers were convicted under section . .
Cited – Regina v Mara CA 1987
The court considered whether the cleaning of a factory constituted part of its undertaking.
Held: ‘A factory, for example, may shut down on Saturdays and Sundays for manufacturing purposes, but the employer may have the premises cleaned by a . .
Applied – Stirland v Director of Public Prosecutions HL 1944
The House considered what was the appropriate test for allowing a conviction to stand despite the finding of an irregularity in the trial.
Held: The House must be satisfied that there was ‘a situation a reasonable jury, after being properly . .
Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Stonehouse HL 1977
The defendant had been charged with attempting to obtain property by deception by fabricating his death by drowning in the sea off Miami in Florida. The final act alleged to constitute the offence occurred outside the jurisdiction of the English . .
Cited by:
Cited – Evans Dorothy, Regina v CACD 6-Dec-2004
The defendant appealed her conviction for having breached a restraining order under the 1997 Act. The order required her not to be ‘abusive by words or actions’ towards her neighbour. She had regularly parked her car so as to block her neighbour’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Health and Safety
Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.158869