''Titchener v British Railway Board''
9831 WLR 1427 is a Scottish
delict case concerning
occupiers' liability Premises liability (known in some common law jurisdictions as occupiers' liability) is the liability that a landowner or occupier has for certain torts that occur on their land.
Scope of the law
Premises liability may range from things from "injuri ...
, decided by the
House of Lords.
Facts
Miss Titchener, a 15-year-old girl, climbed through a gap in a fence onto a railway line owned by the
British Railways Board. She was hit by a train. She sued the board under the
Occupiers' Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 for failing in their common duty of care to keep the premises reasonably safe for visitors.
The
Inner House of the Court of Session
The Inner House is the senior part of the Court of Session, the supreme civil court in Scotland; the Outer House forms the junior part of the Court of Session. It is a court of appeal and a court of first instance. The chief justice is the ...
held that the pursuer had taken a chance, fully aware of the risks involved and that the Board had no responsibility to maintain the fence any more than they had.
[Mark Lunney, Ken Oliphant, ''Tort Law: Text and Materials'' (OUP, 2008) 286, ]
Judgment
The House of Lords dismissed the claimant's final appeal, holding that she was not owed any duty under the Occupiers' Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 on the grounds that she had voluntarily decided to run the risk of walking on the railway line. As such, the defender had no duty, at least in relation to the pursuer, to maintain the fence any better than they had, based on the principle of ''
volenti non fit injuria''.
Other cases
The following cases were referred to in this judgment:
* ''
Slater v Clay Cross Co Ltd''—distinguished
See also
*''
Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council''
*''
Donoghue v Folkestone Properties Ltd
''Donoghue v Folkestone Properties Limited'' (2003) (QB 1008; 2 WLR 1138; 3 All ER 1101) is an English court case heard in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales concerning the tort of occupiers' liability from the Occupiers' Liability Act 1984 ...
''
References
Scottish case law
House of Lords cases
1983 in Scotland
1983 in United Kingdom case law
Court of Session cases
British Rail
Death in Scotland
Rail transport in Scotland
Delict
Railway litigation in 1983
{{Scotland-rail-transport-stub