Law Weblog

Gorringe v Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] HL

Saturday 3 April 2004 at 1:28 pm | In News | Post Comment

[Negligence – duty of care – private duty of care not automatically derived from the shadow of a statutory duty]
D was the local authority responsible under Highways Act 1980 for the maintenance of a country road. C drove too fast towards the crest of a hill and collided with a bus suffering very severe injuries. C argued that D’s failure to paint the word ‘SLOW’ on the road surface constituted a breach of its duty under the Highways Act and the Road Traffic Act 1988. She argued that that the statutory duties cast a common law shadow and created a duty to users of the highway to take reasonable steps in compliance with the duties in the section.

Held: It was not possible to impose upon a local authority a common law duty to act based solely on the existence of a broad public law duty. A common law duty of care could not grow parasitically out of a statutory duty not intended to be owed to individuals. The drivers had to take responsibility for the damage they caused and compulsory third party insurance is intended to ensure that they would be able to do so. In the instant case, where the complaint was that the authority had done nothing, the action had to fail. Stovin v Wise [1996] applied.

C lost
Whole case here