LW201 TORT LAW
WEEK 3
OCCUPIERS LIABILITY (PART TWO)
Who is a visitor?
o Express permission
o Implied permission
o Contractors
o Legal entrants e.g. someone who comes to check the gas meter.
Duty of an occupier to a visitor:
o To those whom the occupier has invited or has (or is treated as having) given
permission to use the premises (s.1(2));
o Or those who have a lawful right to be on the premises (s.2(6))
OLA 1957: covers lawful visitors (e.g. invitees) & contractual visitors (s.3)
An occupier can restrict the duty owed to a V, change the terms of permission &
revoke it. (s.2(1))
Must give reasonable time to leave if revoke
The Calgarth [1977]
Scrutton LJ: “when you invite a person into your house to use the staircase, you do not invite
him to slide down the banisters, you invite him to use the staircase in the ordinary way it is
used.”
OLA 1957 s.2(2): “the duty is to make the premises reasonably safe for use for the purposes
for which the visitor is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there”
If the visitor goes beyond what she is invited, or given permission to do, then she falls outside
the OLA 1957, but may fall under OLA 1984.
A visitor may be a visitor for some purposes but not others.
Hobhouse LJ (in Tomlinson v Congleton BC):
“it is not, and should never be, the policy of the law to require the protection of the foolhardy
or reckless few to deprive, or interfere with, the enjoyment by the remainder of society of the
liberties and amenities to which they are rightly entitled.”
Implied visitors:
Implied permission to enter? Jolley v Sutton LBC
Three elements must be proven in order for a claim to be successful:
1. Duty
2. Breach
3. Causation and remoteness
WEEK 3
OCCUPIERS LIABILITY (PART TWO)
Who is a visitor?
o Express permission
o Implied permission
o Contractors
o Legal entrants e.g. someone who comes to check the gas meter.
Duty of an occupier to a visitor:
o To those whom the occupier has invited or has (or is treated as having) given
permission to use the premises (s.1(2));
o Or those who have a lawful right to be on the premises (s.2(6))
OLA 1957: covers lawful visitors (e.g. invitees) & contractual visitors (s.3)
An occupier can restrict the duty owed to a V, change the terms of permission &
revoke it. (s.2(1))
Must give reasonable time to leave if revoke
The Calgarth [1977]
Scrutton LJ: “when you invite a person into your house to use the staircase, you do not invite
him to slide down the banisters, you invite him to use the staircase in the ordinary way it is
used.”
OLA 1957 s.2(2): “the duty is to make the premises reasonably safe for use for the purposes
for which the visitor is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there”
If the visitor goes beyond what she is invited, or given permission to do, then she falls outside
the OLA 1957, but may fall under OLA 1984.
A visitor may be a visitor for some purposes but not others.
Hobhouse LJ (in Tomlinson v Congleton BC):
“it is not, and should never be, the policy of the law to require the protection of the foolhardy
or reckless few to deprive, or interfere with, the enjoyment by the remainder of society of the
liberties and amenities to which they are rightly entitled.”
Implied visitors:
Implied permission to enter? Jolley v Sutton LBC
Three elements must be proven in order for a claim to be successful:
1. Duty
2. Breach
3. Causation and remoteness
