PLAY. Sign in to your account. There may be adiscretionary element in its exercise—discretionary as to the time and mannerof inspection, and the techniques to be used. In-text: (Anns v Merton, [1978]) Anns v Merton; House of Lords. There is, in my opinion, no difficulty about this.A reasonable man in the position of the inspector must realise that if thefoundations arc covered in without adequate depth or strength as required bythe byelaws, injury to safety or health may be suffered by owners or occupiersof the house. Book an Initial Consultation with our Professional Negligence Lawyers. If there was no inspection of the foundations before they were covered up,the tenants' claims would fail because the statute imposed no obligation uponthe council to inspect the foundations of these maisonettes nor of any otherparticular building. The availability of a duty of care in negligence. Is there, then, authority against the existence of any such duty or anyreason to restrict it? Get 1 point on adding a valid citation to this judgment. Case Information. That design was negligent. I cannot, however, accept the propositionthat a contractor who has negligently built a dangerous house can escapeliability to pay damages for negligence to anyone who e.g. It is for this reason that the law, as stated in some of the speeches in theEast Suffolk case, but not in those of Lord Atkin or Lord Thankerton, requiresat the present time to be understood and applied with the recognition that,quite apart from such consequences as may flow from an examination of theduties laid down by the particular statute, there may be room, once one isoutside the area of legitimate discretion or policy, for a duty of care, at commonlaw. These factors are then. Anns v Merton London Borough Council; Court: House of Lords: Full case name: Anns and others v London Borough of Merton: Decided: May 12, 1977 () Citation(s) [1977] UKHL 4 [1978] AC 728 [1977] 2 All ER 492 [1977] 2 WLR 1024: Case history; Prior action(s) Judgment for defendant at first hearing on the basis that the plaintiffs were statute barred. NOTE: You must connect to Westlaw Next before accessing this resource. [1976]1 Q.B. Hilbery J. who tried the case held the Board liable for the damagecaused by the extended flooding and his decision was upheld by a majority ofthe Court of Appeal. Subject always to adequate proof of causation,these damages may include damages for personal injury and damage to pro-perty. So it is necessary to consider thispoint, although it does not directly arise in the present appeal. that the issue between the Plaintiffs and the 2nd Defendants whether" claim is statute barred be tried on 24th October 1975 ". ATTORNEY(S) ACTS. In the Dorset Yacht Co. case the officers may (on the assumedfacts) have acted outside any discretion delegated to them and having dis-regarded their instructions as to the precautions which they should take toprevent the trainees from escaping (see per Lord Diplock, I.c. In the light of these authorities I think that it would have beenvery difficult, if not impossible, for the learned Judge to have held that theinstant action was not Statute barred since the foundations were badly con-structed and all the original conveyances were executed more than six yearsbefore the writ was issued. I agree with that decisionfor the reasons given by Lord MacDermott C.J. My noble and learned friend points out that the acceptedprinciples which are applicable to powers conferred by a private Act ofParliament, as laid down in Geddis v. Proprietors of Bann Reservoirs, cannotautomatically be applied to public statutes which confer a large measure ofdiscretion upon public authorities. 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