A recent case (Pollock v Cahill (2015), has shown the importance of looking after visitors to your home, after the owners of a home were found liable (to blame) for their blind friends accident after he fell from an open upstairs window, which has left him with serious life changing injuries.
In closing submissions Mr Grime Q.C. described this as “a most unusual, most unhappy and tragic case”. It was a case involving close friends.
Mark Pollock is now aged 39. On 2nd July 2010 he fell from an open second floor window at the home in Henley on Thames of the Defendants, Enda and Madeline Cahill. As a result he sustained spinal and brain injuries. He is now paralysed from the waist downwards
Mr Pollock’s case was that he fell from the window due to the breach of the Defendants’ duty as occupiers of the house in which he was staying.
Pursuant to Section 2 of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, there is a common duty to ensure that a visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there and that an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful than adults; and
The Court found that the home owners did owe a duty of care to their friend and that they had failed to discharge the common duty of care they had owed as occupiers. The open window had been a real risk to the claimant. They had created that risk. They ought to have appreciated the risk and taken steps to prevent it by keeping the window closed or by warning the claimant about it.
If you have suffered an injury, caused by occupiers liability then contact our team today at Ringrose Law where we can advise you if you have a claim.