I saw the headline and thought...

I saw the headline and thought I bet I know what happened there,,, but I was wrong...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-35720408

I used to frequent this bar, had good basic cheap pub grub at one time, I'm in one afternoon with my daughter having a pie and a pint, bar staff start to take a delivery, they open a hatch to the cellar just inside the front door of the pub, one member of staff goes down the ladder in to the cellar, another starts passing boxes of booze down to him that the delivery driver is bringing in... I think to myself someone walking in to the pub not knowing the hatch was open could go straight down the hole,,, but I was wrong again, a member of staff still serving at the bar asks a question of the person passing the boxes down the hatch, this person turns and answers the question, once answered takes a step to turn back to what they were doing,,, straight down the hatch he went... Luckily he didn't hurt himself to bad, but you could see it was an accident just waiting to happen...

But it is an interesting court case/decision,,, there are thousands of these basement type properties around Edinburgh and no doubt many more throughout the UK all with external stairs normally with a gate at the top, does this ruling mean the owners of such properties are now liable if someone leans against an unlocked gate and falls down the stairs, and where's the difference if someone leans against your gate and falls on to your path breaking their arm, are you liable cos you didn't lock the gate...

Good point Minty...you should have been a lawyer!

yes you are liable for all aspects of health and safety on your property, e.g. if you dug a hole in your path and did nothing to prevent anyone falling down said hole ,you would be held responsible, we used to have a play area for kids that people outside the estate could use but when we found out that the residents of the estate could be prosecuted if a child from outside was injured we had the play area removed

Yip, we done the same thing with a kids play area on an estate where I once lived...

When we built our house we were required to leave a 3 metre space between the front wall and the edge of the road ( to allow for safe parking apparently ). When the motorway was being built, the lorries used to pull into our space to allow traffic to pass. They destroyed the ground ( had hardcore and chippings down). I got more chippings and put 3 big flower pots there but cars used to pull in while the drivers were on the phone. Two of the pots were smashed by these kents who didn't even own up. So, I built 3 flower beds with spare concrete blocks I had. One guy damaged his car on it and rang the door to complain. "Your flower bed is after denting my car" he said. "What were you doing there?" I asked. "I was taking a phone call, and was pulling out when your flower bed impacted my car!" "Show me the written permission for you to trespass on my land" I asked. End of conversation.

searcher wrote:yes you are liable for all aspects of health and safety on your property, e.g. if you dug a hole in your path and did nothing to prevent anyone falling down said hole ,you would be held responsible, we used to have a play area for kids that people outside the estate could use but when we found out that the residents of the estate could be prosecuted if a child from outside was injured we had the play area removed

Adam Mint wrote:Yip, we done the same thing with a kids play area on an estate where I once lived...

Party poopers!