Hufton v Somerset County Council
by Rebecca Piper, July 18th, 2011
During a spell of wet weather a 15 year old pupil (P) slipped and fell on the wet floor of her schools hall, injuring her knee. P brought a claim against the Local Authority on the grounds that the school staff had been negligent in allowing pupils to enter the hall from the outside in wet weather conditions, as this caused the floor to become wet.
The school did have a policy in place to cover such instances. Pupils were not allowed to enter the school hall from the outside on wet days, on such days a sign was placed by the fire doors of the hall, the purpose of which was to instruct the school prefects to prevent pupils from entering the hall.
The Court of First Instance held that it was not reasonable to expect the school to have a policy in place to monitor and remove water deposited in the school hall during the brief period between the time the rain began and putting the signs up. The Judge found that the schools procedures were reasonable and appropriate, P’s fall was an unfortunate accident and the school was not liable for the damages claimed.
P appealed against this decision on the basis that there had been no proper system in place for preventing the floor of the hall from becoming wet; nor if it did become wet, was there a proper system in place for clearing the water up.
The appeal was dismissed. The Court of Appeal agreed with the trial Judge and found that:
1. The school’s risk assessment was reasonable and identified appropriate control measures, which had been implemented.
2. There was no evidence to show that water gathering on the hall floor was a frequent problem or that a special system for mopping it up was required, therefore it was not reasonable to expect the school to have a policy in place for spotting and removing a small area of water during the brief period of time between it starting to rain and the wet weather signs being displayed.
3. The law did not require an occupier of premises to take measures which would absolutely prevent any accident from ever occurring; all that was required was the exercise of reasonable care.
