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OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the law as to the liability of occupiers and
others for injury or damage resulting to persons or goods lawfully
on any land or other property from dangers due to the state of
the property or to things done or omitted to be done there, and
for purposes connected therewith.
[12th December 1957]
Liability in tortPreliminary.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 1

1.(1) The rules enacted by the two next following sections shall
have effect, in place of the rules of the common law, to regulate
the duty which an occupier of premises owes to his visitors in
respect of dangers due to the state of the premises or to things
done or omitted to be done on them.

(2) The rules so enacted shall regulate the nature of the duty
imposed by law in consequence of a person's occupation or control
of premises and of any invitation or permission he gives (or is to
be treated as giving) to another to enter or use the premises, but
they shall not alter the rules of the common law as to the
persons on whom a duty is so imposed or to whom it is owed; and
accordingly for the purpose of the rules so enacted the persons who
are to be treated as an occupier and as his visitors are the same
as the persons who would at common law be treated as an occupier
and as his invitees or licensees.

(3) The rules so enacted in relation to an occupier of premises
and his visitors shall also apply, in like manner and to the like
extent as the principles applicable at common law to an occupier of
premises and his invitees or licensees would apply, to regulate

(a)the obligations of a person occupying or having control over any
fixed or movable structure, including any vessel, vehicle or
aircraft; and

(b)the obligations of a person occupying or having control over any
premises or structure in respect of damage to property, including
the property of persons who are not themselves his visitors.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 2
Extent of occupier's ordinary duty.

2.(1) An occupier of premises owes the same duty, the "common duty
of care", to all his visitors, except in so far as he is free to
and does extend, restrict, modify or exclude his duty to any
visitor or visitors by agreement or otherwise.

(2) The common duty of care is a duty to take such care as in
all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the
visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the
purposes for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to
be there.

(3) The circumstances relevant for the present purpose include the
degree of care, and of want of care, which would ordinarily be
looked for in such a visitor, so that (for example) in proper
cases

(a)an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful
than adults; and

(b)an occupier may expect that a person, in the exercise of his
calling, will appreciate and guard against any special risks
ordinarily incident to it, so far as the occupier leaves him free
to do so.

(4) In determining whether the occupier of premises has discharged
the common duty of care to a visitor, regard is to be had to all
the circumstances, so that (for example)

(a)where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger of which he
had been warned by the occupier, the warning is not to be treated
without more as absolving the occupier from liability, unless in all
the circumstances it was enough to enable the visitor to be
reasonably safe; and

(b)where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger due to the
faulty execution of any work of construction, maintenance or repair
by an independent contractor employed by the occupier, the occupier
is not to be treated without more as answerable for the danger if
in all the circumstances he had acted reasonably in entrusting the
work to an independent contractor and had taken such steps, if any,
as he reasonably ought in order to satisfy himself that the
contractor was competent and that the work had been properly done.

(5) The common duty of care does not impose on an occupier any
obligation to a visitor in respect of risks willingly accepted as
his by the visitor (the question whether a risk was so accepted to
be decided on the same principles as in other cases in which one
person owes a duty of care to another).

(6) For the purposes of this section, persons who enter premises
for any purpose in the exercise of a right conferred by law are
to be treated as permitted by the occupier to be there for that
purpose, whether they in fact have his permission or not.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 3
Effect of contract on occupier's liability to third party.

3.(1) Where an occupier of premises is bound by contract to permit
persons who are strangers to the contract to enter or use the
premises, the duty of care which he owes to them as his visitors
cannot be restricted or excluded by that contract, but (subject to
any provision of the contract to the contrary) shall include the
duty to perform his obligations under the contract, whether
undertaken for their protection or not, in so far as those
obligations go beyond the obligations otherwise involved in that
duty.

(2) A contract shall not by virtue of this section have the
effect, unless it expressly so provides, of making an occupier who
has taken all reasonable care answerable to strangers to the
contract for dangers due to the faulty execution of any work of
construction, maintenance or repair or other like operation by
persons other than himself, his servants and persons acting under
his direction and control.

(3) In this section "stranger to the contract" means a person not
for the time being entitled to the benefit of the contract as a
party to it or as the successor by assignment or otherwise of a
party to it, and accordingly includes a party to the contract who
has ceased to be so entitled.

(4) Where by the terms or conditions governing any tenancy
(including a statutory tenancy which does not in law amount to a
tenancy) either the landlord or the tenant is bound, though not by
contract, to permit persons to enter or use premises of which he
is the occupier, this section shall apply as if the tenancy were a
contract between the landlord and the tenant.

(5) This section, in so far as it prevents the common duty of
care from being restricted or excluded, applies to contracts entered
into and tenancies created before the commencement of this Act, as
well as to those entered into or created after its commencement;
but, in so far as it enlarges the duty owed by an occupier beyond
the common duty of care, it shall have effect only in relation to
obligations which are undertaken after that commencement or which are
renewed by agreement (whether express or implied) after that
commencement.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 4
Landlord's liability in virtue of obligation to repair.

4.(1) Where premises are occupied by any person under a tenancy
which puts on the landlord an obligation to that person for the
maintenance or repair of the premises, the landlord shall owe to
all persons who or whose goods may from time to time be lawfully
on the premises the same duty, in respect of dangers arising from
any default by him in carrying out that obligation, as if he were
an occupier of the premises and those persons or their goods were
there by his invitation or permission (but without any contract).

(2) Where premises are occupied under a sub-tenancy, the foregoing
sub-section shall apply to any landlord of the premises (whether the
immediate or a superior landlord) on whom an obligation to the
occupier for the maintenance or repair of the premises is put by
the sub-tenancy, and for that purpose any obligation to the occupier
which the sub-tenancy puts on a mesne landlord of the premises, or
is treated by virtue of this provision as putting on a mesne
landlord, shall be treated as put by it also on any landlord on
whom the mesne landlord's tenancy puts the like obligation towards
the mesne landlord.

(3) For the purposes of this section, where premises comprised in a
tenancy (whether occupied under that tenancy or under a sub-tenancy)
are put to a use not permitted by the tenancy, and the landlord
of whom they are held under the tenancy is not debarred by his
acquiescence or otherwise from objecting or from enforcing his
objection, then no persons or goods whose presence on the premises
is due solely to that use of the premises shall be deemed to be
lawfully on the premises as regards that landlord or any superior
landlord of the premises, whether or not they are lawfully there as
regards an inferior landlord.

(4) For the purposes of this section, a landlord shall not be
deemed to have made default in carrying out any obligation to the
occupier of the premises unless his default is such as to be
actionable at the suit of the occupier or, in the case of a
superior landlord whose actual obligation is to an inferior landlord,
his default in carrying out that obligation is actionable at the
suit of the inferior landlord.

(5) Nothing in this section shall relieve a landlord of any duty
which he is under apart from this section.

(6) For the purposes of this section, obligations imposed by any
enactment in virtue of a tenancy shall be treated as imposed by
the tenancy, and "tenancy" includes a statutory tenancy which does
not in law amount to a tenancy, and includes also any contract
conferring a right of occupation, and "landlord" shall be construed
accordingly.

(7) This section applies to tenancies created before the commencement
of this Act, as well as to those created after its commencement.

Implied term in contracts.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 5

5.(1) Where persons enter or use, or bring or send goods to, any
premises in exercise of a right conferred by contract with a person
occupying or having control of the premises, the duty he owes them
in respect of dangers due to the state of the premises or to
things done or omitted to be done on them, in so far as the duty
depends on a term to be implied in the contract by reason of its
conferring that right, shall be the common duty of care.

(2) The foregoing sub-section shall apply to fixed and movable
structures as it applies to premises.

(3) This section does not affect the obligations imposed on a
person by or by virtue of any contract for the hire of, or for
the carriage for reward of persons or goods in, any vehicle,
vessel, aircraft or other means of transport, or by or by virtue
of any contract of bailment.

(4) This section does not apply to contracts entered into before
the commencement of this Act.

Application to Crown.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 6

6. This Act shall bind the Crown, but as regards the Crown's
liability in tort shall not bind the Crown further than the Crown
is made liable in tort under the law of Northern Ireland by Orders
in Council under section fifty-three of the Crown Proceedings Act,
1947, and that Act and in particular section two of it as in
force in Northern Ireland by virtue of such Orders in Council shall
apply in relation to duties under sections two to four of this Act
as statutory duties.

OCCUPIERS' LIABILITY ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1957 - SECT 7
Short title.

7.(1) This Act may be cited as the Occupiers' Liability Act
(Northern Ireland), 1957.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1973