Section: Housing Management

No Liability for Window Fall

Mrs Stevens' two-year-old son opened a first-floor window in their council house, which had no locks, and fell about 10 feet. He suffered significant injuries. It was established that the window had not been in need of repair. Whilst the window had not been defective, it was designed without locks.

Before the accident, Mrs Stevens had asked the Council to fit safety locks, but the Council's policy of not fitting such locks, because it considered them a risk in the event of fire, prevented this preventative action. The request to fit the locks was refused.

After the accident, the Council did fit safety catches. These prevented the windows from opening fully and were designed so as to be child proof.

Mrs Stevens took the view that these catches, if fitted earlier, would have prevented the accident. She sought compensation for injuries to her son, claiming the Council had owed him a duty of care and had been negligent in not fitting safety locks. The Judge upheld the claim and the Council appealed.

The Court of Appeal decided the Council had not been liable on the grounds that:

There had not been any breach of the Council's landlord obligations to Mrs Stevens.
Health and safety rules had not been broken.
The Council's policy on safety locks was reasonable and was partly influenced by previous tragedies in which there had been difficulty in escaping from fires.
Mrs Stevens had never requested the fitting of safety catches (as opposed to locks) of the type installed after the accident.

Stevens v Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

Claimant Mainly Responsible for Accident

Mr Lips was the tenant of a ground floor bedsit. He suffered a serious injury when he fell from the path leading to the front door of the house, landing in an area in front of the basement flat below. Mr Lips claimed he lost his balance whilst looking for his keys and fell over the low restraining wall along the path. He sued his landlord, Mr Older, for compensation.

The Judge decided Mr Lips was an alcoholic and had been drinking. He concluded that the alcohol had been the main cause of the accident. However, the Judge also concluded that the landlord had to expect that a tenant might return home after having been drinking. The judge found that it would be reasonable to expect the landlord to provide a way of improving the safety of the area, perhaps by fitting a handrail.

The Judge awarded compensation, but, because he considered Mr Lips to be mainly to blame for the accident, he reduced the award by two-thirds.

Lips v Older

Asthma Test Case

In the first case of its kind in the UK, a woman obtained legal aid to take Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Housing Association to court, claiming that damp conditions in her flat triggered her son's asthma.

It is alleged that the seven-year-old boy's exposure to high levels of the faeces of house dust mites caused his condition. His mother is suing the Council, as her previous landlord, and the Association as her current landlord, for £50,000, based on a landlord's statutory duty of care under the Occupiers' Liability Scotland Act 1960.

Previous similar cases have led to relatively small settlements. If successful, this case could lead to an avalanche of claims for tens of thousands of pounds in compensation from other asthma sufferers.

Section: Housing Management

No Liability for Window Fall

Claimant Mainly Responsible for Accident

Asthma Test Case

Legal Update

Reporting on April-June 2004

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