A boy trespassed on land and was injured on machinery there. The local working-classes resorted to the field regularly ‘(1) as an open space; (2) as a playground; (3) as a means of access to chapel and railway station; and (4) – as regards the less well disposed members of the local community – as a means of approach to the defenders’ coal bing and wood depot for purposes of depredation. ‘ The defendant had taken steps to prevent the latter, but not otherwise.
Held: Lord President Clyde said that if the presence of a trespasser near a dangerous machine is known to the proprietor he cannot disregard it: ‘I am unable to distinguish that case from the case in which the proprietor knows of the habitual resort of adults or children, or both, to the near neighbourhood of the dangerous machine – a habit of resort which makes it to his knowledge likely that one or more of such persons may be at the machine when he applies the motive power.’
Judges:
Lord President Clyde
Citations:
1928 SC 547
Citing:
Cited – Lowery v Walker HL 9-Nov-1910
A trespasser was injured by the land owner’s savage horse.
Held: If a land-owner knows of but does nothing to stop acts of trespass by the public on his land, there may be an implied license. Decision reversed. In Scottish courts the . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Addie (Robert) and Sons (Collieries) Ltd v Dumbreck HL 25-Feb-1929
No occupier is under any duty to potential trespassers, whether adults or children, to do anything to protect them from danger on his land, however likely it may be that they will come and run into danger and however lethal the danger may be. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Torts – Other, Scotland, Land
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.211428
