Scott v London and St Katherine Docks Co

判决理由

事实

Scott, a customs officer, was lawfully passing near the defendants' warehouse when six heavy bags of sugar fell on him from a crane being used to lower goods from an upper floor. He was injured, but was unable to prove exactly how or why the bags came to fall, since the loading operation was entirely under the control of the defendants and their employees.

判决摘要

The Court of Exchequer Chamber ordered a new trial and, in doing so, gave the classic statement of the principle of res ipsa loquitur ('the thing speaks for itself'). Erle CJ held that although a claimant must ordinarily produce affirmative evidence of negligence, there are cases where the accident itself supplies that evidence: where the thing that caused the injury was under the management of the defendant or its servants, and the accident is such as in the ordinary course of things does not happen if proper care is used, the accident itself affords reasonable evidence of negligence in the absence of explanation by the defendant. Bags of sugar do not fall from a warehouse crane onto passers-by if those in charge take proper care, and the operation was wholly under the defendants' control; the accident therefore raised an inference of negligence which, unexplained, entitled the claimant to succeed. The maxim shifts the evidential position, requiring the defendant to offer an explanation consistent with the absence of negligence. The case is the origin of res ipsa loquitur in English law, later clarified in Lloyde v West Midlands Gas Board.

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