No Negligence – and No Latin

Fryer v Pearson and another (CA TLR 4 April)

The claimant, a gas fitter, was injured when he knelt on the point of a sewing needle concealed in the deep-pile carpet in the defendants’ house. In dismissing the claimant’s appeal against the judge’s finding that the defendants would only be liable if they knew the needle was in the carpet and had allowed it to remain there, the court criticised the judge for referring to the doctrine of ‘res ipsa loquitur’. People should stop using maxims or doctrines dressed up in Latin which are not readily comprehensible to those for whose benefit they are supposed to exist.