The defendants, father and son, operated a firework storage facility. Two fire service employees died when a fire was fought. They were thought to have been storing Type 1 fireworks for which they had no licence. They were each convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Held: Though the son’s sentence was reduced for his greater assistance, this application for leave to appeal against conviction failed.
The defendants argued that one of the deceased, being a person employed to film such scenes for the Fire Service and not a fire fighter could not be expected to be present, and so no duty of care was owed to him. The argument was rejected: ‘it is reasonable foreseeable that civilian employees of the fire service in the position of Mr Wembridge may come on to and close to the site of a fire in order to film or photograph it.’
The defendants also argued that the jury had been placed under excessive pressure to reach a verdict. Here the foreman had not accepted the judge’s invitation to say that there was no possibility of a verdict and had instead posed further questions which when answered led to the verdicts. No undue pressure had been applied.
Judges:
Hooper LJ, Gross J, Moss QC J
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Crim 1474
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ogwo v Taylor HL 19-Nov-1987
A firefighter sought damages for personal injuries from the party negligent in starting a fire, suffered while attending it.
Held: A property owner owes a duty of care to firemen, not, by his negligence, to start a fire, or to create special . .
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Regina v Shulman, Regina v Prentice, Regina v Adomako; Regina v Holloway HL 1-Jul-1994
An anaesthetist failed to observe an operation properly, and did not notice that a tube had become disconnected from a ventilator. The patient suffered a cardiac arrest and died, and the defendant was convicted of manslaughter, being guilty of gross . .
Cited by:
Criminal appeal – Wembridge Claimants and Others v Winter and Others QBD 30-Jul-2013
There had been a large explosion of fireworks stored in a steel shipping container. The court heard claims in damages from relatives of a firefighter and civilian police support technician who had died, and from others injured in the blast. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.420237
