News

Court of Appeal rules on tripping claim and questions of evidence
26 April 2012

The Court of Appeal this morning handed down its judgment in Lawrence v. Kent CC[2012] EWCA Civ 493 in which Simon Browne QC and Anthony Johnson represented the Claimant who was injured when she tripped on a protruding manhole cover which the Defendant was responsible for. The case was a relatively rare example of a claim under the Highways Act 1980 reaching a second appeal. Although the Court accepted the Claimant's main ground of appeal that opinion evidence of eye-witnesses is admissible in civil proceedings (overturning the High Court's ruling to the contrary), it allowed the Defendant's cross-appeal and substituted its own finding that the hazard was not dangerous and that in so finding the trial judge had failed to properly balance the public and private interests that were at play. Costs remain at large. The judgment is of wider interest because their Lordships discussed at some length the approach that an appellate court should take to appeals on questions of contested fact.