News

High Court Rules on Tripping Claim
21 June 2011

Anthony Johnson represented the Claimant in this appeal from a first instance decision of HHJ Caddick in the Maidstone County Court to the Queens Bench Division. Eady J. held primarily that the trial judge had not misunderstood the nature of the statutory duty under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, nor had he applied the wrong test. He went on to find, however, that the judge had taken into account an irrelevant consideration by relying upon the subjective opinions of eye-witnesses about the danger posed by the defect, when in actual fact he should have formed his own view based upon the balancing exercise that the case-law requires him to perform.