Special Part, Illustrations. (16)
19th Century Sir Frederick Pollock EnglishG. W. Ry. of Canada v. Braid, 1 Moo. P. C. N. S. 101, and cases there cited. 1. A. is the owner of an embankment constructed by authority of the Government. Part of this embankment is carried away in a storm, whereby B.’s adjacent land and crops are damaged. If A. has in fact been diligent in constructing and maintaining the embankment in such a manner as to be capable of resisting all such violence of weather as in that part of the country may be expected to occur, or if the storm was so extraordinary that no practicable precaution could have guarded against its effects, then A. has not wronged B. If the storm was such as might have been reasonably provided against, and if A. has not been so diligent as aforesaid (which may be inferred as a fact from the failure of the embankment in the absence of proof that the best known precautions were used), then A. has wronged B.
Sparks escape from a railway engine used by the X. Railway Company on their line, and set fire to A.’s corn in an adjoining field. The X. Company must make compensation to A., unless they prove that the best known practicable precautions were used to prevent the escape of sparks from the engines.
A. burns weeds on his own land. Sparks from the fire are carried into B.’s growing crop and set fire to it. A. must make compensation to B., unless he proves that the fire was carried by a sudden and extraordinary wind, or in some other unusual manner which he could not, by reasonable and practicable precaution, have prevented.
A., a zamíndár, maintains an ancient tank on his zamíndárí for the benefit of agriculture. An extraordinary rainfall causes the tank to burst, and the water escaped therefrom carries away a building belonging to B. If A. has been diligent in maintaining the tank, and making provision against any ordinary overflow of water, A. has not wronged B..
A. sends a parcel containing a detonating mixture to a railway station, to be carried as goods by the railway company, without informing the company’s servants of the nature of the contents. While B., a servant of the company, is handling the box for the purpose of dispatching it by train, and with care sufficient for the safe and proper handling of ordinary goods, the contents explode and injure B. There is nothing to show the specific cause of the explosion. A. has wronged B. The explosion also damages a cart of C.’s, which has brought other goods to be dispatched by train. A. has, but the company has not, wronged C..
A., having left a loaded gun in his house, sends B., a young person inexperienced in handling firearms, to fetch it. A. tells B. that the gun is loaded, and directs him to handle it carefully. B. fetches the gun, and on his way back points it in sport at C. The gun goes off, and wounds C. A. has wronged C..
A. is a dealer in drugs. By the negligence of A.’s servant a jar of extract of belladonna is labelled as extract of dandelion, and sold on A.’s behalf to B., a retail druggist. B., in good faith, resells part of it as extract of dandelion to C., a customer, who by taking it is made dangerously ill. A. has wronged C..
Liability of occupiers of property.69. (1) A person possessed of—
is in this and the next following section called an occupier.
(2) An occupier must keep the property occupied by him in reasonably safe condition and repair as regards—
and is liable as for negligence to any such person who is injured by want of such condition and repair.
(3) A person who has delivered out of his possession to be employed for the purposes of his business any such carriage or vessel as in this section mentioned continues responsible during such employment for any want of reasonably safe condition and repair which existed at the time of his parting with the possession.
Explanation.—The existence of a defect which the usual care and skill of competent persons could not have discovered or prevented (in this section called a latent defect) is not a want of reasonably safe condition and repair, but the burden of proof is on the occupier to show that the defect which caused an injury was latent.
(4) Safe condition includes careful management.
(5) Persons using property as of right include—