The Thaw

[RichardCranium]

apparently if you do not clear your drive/path and someone slips on it they cannot sue you as snow is an act of God

but if you do clear your path and some slips on it they can sue you as it is then your fault.

I really cannot see any problem with that at all.

Do you want me to stand on the pavement with a brolly and make sure you don't get wet and catch a cold, too?

[original PM]

hmmm not sure where you are coming from

lets try again

If you try and clear your path to do a public service for someone (say the postman to help him deliver your letters) and he slips he can sue you.

But if you think feck it let the posty struggle in the snow and he slips it is an act of god.

see if you try and help you can be sued but if you do feck all you cannot be

maybe I am missing the point somehwhere??

[Platypus]

apparently if you do not clear your drive/path and someone slips on it they cannot sue you as snow is an act of God

but if you do clear your path and some slips on it they can sue you as it is then your fault.


And we wonder why the country is going to hell in a handbasket!

Bunk

Also, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8443745.stm

you are taking a theoretical legal risk if you clear the pavement in front of your home.

It's the local authority's responsibility to clear snow and ice from the public highway. By sweeping snow from one part of the pavement to another, if done in a manner that caused injury to someone, there is a chance legal action could be taken against you on the basis you had created a nuisance under tort law.

But, Paul Kitson, a partner with leading personal injury solicitors Russell Jones & Walker, explains that a claimant would have to show you had acted either maliciously or carelessly, and that such a case would often be tricky in practice.

"It would be quite difficult to prove and quite difficult to proceed with a claim."

On your own land, it is a different matter. You owe visitors a duty under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 to take reasonable care to ensure that they are reasonably safe. So if you know someone is likely to walk up your garden path, like the milkman, and you know it's slippery, you must take reasonable steps to clear it and grit it if necessary.

[RichardCranium]

see if you try and help you can be sued but if you do flip all you cannot be

maybe I am missing the point somewhere??

If you leave the world in its natural state and allow others to tackle it on their own, you are safe.

If you tamper with the natural order of things and, as a consequence, somebody gets hurt, surely it is right you should be held responsible?



However, if your drive has ice on it, I agree, do something about it. But if it is snow, just leave it.

[Tingles]

apparently if you do not clear your drive/path and someone slips on it they cannot sue you as snow is an act of God

but if you do clear your path and some slips on it they can sue you as it is then your fault.


And we wonder why the country is going to hell in a handbasket!

I thought it was handcart???

[Platypus]

Amusingly, the problem of snow clearance and the country's general unpreparedness for snow was raised in the Lords in 1955 !

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/l...snow-clearance

I want to suggest that we who periodically get these bouts of snow, and who periodically try to convince ourselves that we are a country which has no snow, have reached the time when we should endeavour to embark on a long-term plan.

[Bunk]

Bunk

Wot?

[Platypus]

Wot?

False alarm