Duties to contractual and non-contractual visitors

Maguire v Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council and Another [2006] EWCA Civ 316

Counsel: For the appellant: Yaqub Rahman For the respondent: Peter Goodbody Solicitors: For the appellant: Weightmans (Liverpool) For the respondent: Bell & Co (Liverpool)

The local authority appealed against a finding of liability by the trial judge for injuries sustained by M, the respondent, in an accident at a leisure centre which it operated. There were several machines at the gymnasium, all of which had been manufactured by a company in America. One was described as an “uphill climbing” machine. The second defendant, P, was the seller of the machines, and also provided maintenance for them. The local authority had entered into a maintenance service agreement with P for the machines, but an engineer employed by P had carried out a pre-contractual inspection of the machines before completion of the agreement could take place. The contract was entered into after the engineer had confirmed that he could find no faults in the machines. Around a month later, M was using the up-hill climbing machine when the mechanism creating resistance failed, with the result that M fell back and injured himself.