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- Date:
- 1 May 1993
- Type:
- Employment law cases
"Risk" is interpreted in a wider sense to convey the possibility of danger, in R v The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum. The Court of Appeal thus upholds the decision of the Crown Court, and notes that a more restrictive definition of "actual danger" would result in "substantial emasculation" of a central part of the HSW Act.
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- Date:
- 1 January 1981
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Page v Freight Hire (Tank Haulage) Ltd [1981] IRLR 13 EAT, the EAT held that the employer was protected by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, section 51(1) because refusing to allow the employee to transport dimethyl formamide was necessary to comply with the employer's duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was not an act of excessive caution.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1968
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Stokes v Guest, Keen and Nettlefold (Bolts and Nuts) Ltd [1968] 1 WLR 1776, it was held: that an employer does not fall below the standard to be properly expected of a reasonable and prudent employer if it follows a recognised practice, unless it is clearly bad, but it must keep reasonably abreast of developing knowledge, and not be too slow to apply it; that where an employer has greater than average knowledge of the risks it might be obliged to take more than average precautions; and that it should weigh up the risk in terms of the likelihood of injury occurring and the potential consequences and balance that against the effectiveness, expense and inconvenience of the precautions.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1961
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Withers v Perry Chain Co Ltd [1961] 1 WLR 1314 CA, it was held that the employer was under no duty to dismiss or to refuse to employ an adult employee who wished to do a job merely because there might be some slight risk to the employee in doing the work.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1951
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Cassidy v Ministry of Health [1951] 1 All ER 574 CA, the Court of Appeal held that where evidence showed a prima facie case of negligence on the part of the persons in whose care the plaintiff was, the defendants were liable to the plaintiff regardless of which individual was negligent.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1950
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Jacobs v LCC [1950] AC 361 HL, the House of Lords held that a woman who had been injured as a result of tripping on a protruding water supply stopcock on council property had been a licensee not an invitee and that the cause of the trip did not amount to a public nuisance adjoining the highway.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1949
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Edwards v National Coal Board [1949] 1 All ER 743 CA, the Court of Appeal held that 'reasonably practicable' is a narrower term than 'physically possible' and implies a computation between quantum of risk on the one hand and the time, cost and trouble of safeguards on the other. If a defendant can show a gross disproportion between them, the risk being insignificant in relation to the sacrifice, the duty holder discharges the onus that is upon him or her.
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- Date:
- 31 December 1946
- Type:
- Employment law cases
In Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Ltd v Coggins and Griffith (Liverpool) Ltd [1946] 2 All ER 345 HL, the House of Lords held that where a crane was hired with a driver and that driver was negligent, the driver's employer would be vicariously liable. Where the negligence was in the way in which the hirer used the crane then the hirer would for that purpose be the employer of the driver. The terms of the contract between the hirer and the employer cannot affect liability to the injured person.