From: Nick
McBride <njm33@cam.ac.uk>
Sent: Tuesday 7
May 2024 12:25
To: Stephen
Pitel; obligations
Subject: Re: Duty
on Police re: Traffic Lights
The
answer is no if the Court of Appeal s decision in Tindall v Chief Constable of
Thames Valley Police [2022] EWCA Civ 25 is any guide. The case is noted here:
Tindall
is now on appeal to the UK Supreme Court, so watch this space.
All
best wishes,
Nick
Sent
from Outlook for iOS
From: Stephen Pitel <spitel@uwo.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:17:01 PM
To: obligations <obligations@uwo.ca>
Subject: ODG: Duty on Police re: Traffic Lights
List
members,
I m
working through a recent decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, Emil
Anderson Maintenance Co Ltd v Taylor, 2024 BCCA 156. It is available
here: https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/doc/2024/2024bcca156/2024bcca156.html
A motorist
notices the traffic lights at an intersection are not operating and that some
cars, instead of stopping as if at a four-way stop (uncontrolled intersection),
are proceeding through at speed. The motorist calls the police to notify
of the problem and expresses the concern that there could be a serious
collision if action is not taken.
The police
took no meaningful action. Ninety minutes later there was a serious
collision at the intersection resulting in a fatality.
The appeal
court confirmed the lower court s decision that the police owed a duty of care
to users of the road and that they had breached it, causing the injuries.
The police were held liable.
Also, it
would seem by chance, an employee of Emil Anderson Maintenance Co. Ltd., the
highway maintenance contractor responsible for that section of highway, drove
through the intersection twice while the lights were out. The employee
took no steps regarding the outage.
The
contractor was also held to owe a duty of care which it breached. It was
also held liable. The appeal decision does not address the duty issue;
only standard and causation. The lower court also did not address duty
because the contractor admitted that it owed a duty to users of the
intersection.
There is a
fair amount to unpack in the decision. To start, though, one question I
have is whether, under English law as it now stands, the police would be under
a duty of care to road users on receiving such a notification.
Stephen
Professor Stephen G.A. Pitel
Faculty of Law, Western University
(519) 661-2111 ext 88433
President, Canadian Association for Legal Ethics/Association canadienne pour
l ethique juridique
|
|
|
|
|
You're receiving this message because you're a member of the
obligations group from The University of Western Ontario. To take part in
this conversation, reply all to this message. |
|
|
|
| Learn more
about Microsoft 365 Groups |
|
|