JAAMACADDA SIMAD جامعـــــةسيمـــــــد Mogadishu – Somalia

NEGOTIATION ON CLASS NORMS DISCIPLINE  Telephone should be silent/ vibration mode  Movements are not allowed  Side talks are forbidden  Questions are open during and after the session  Discussions are the best way at presentation sessions

Main contents  Introduction  Premises  Occupier  Visitor  Duty of the occupier to visitors  Adult or child visitor  Specialist visitor  Structure adjoining the highway  Occupier’s liability towards trespassers OBJECTIVES

Premises The expression ‘ premises’ means not only land but also shop, factory, vehicle, railway carriages, scaffolding, ship, or appliance connected with them like a lift or stairs etc.

Occupier WHO IS OCCUPIER ? a person who had a sufficient degree of control over premises to put him under a duty of care towards those who came lawfully on to the premises. In order be an occupier it is not necessary for a person to have entire control over premises. He need not have exclusive occupation. Suffice is that he has some degree of control.

When a landlord lets hid entire premises to a tenant, it is the tenant who has control over them. Where an owner lets all the floors or flats in a building to tenant but does not let the common stairs or the roof or some other parts the owner is regarded as having control on all those parts not let out by him. Cont.…….

Visitor Before the act of 1957, the ability of an occupier varied according to the class of persons coming on his premises. In common law, such persons were placed in four different classes.  A person entering under contract.  Invitee I,e person who ( without any contract) enters for the purpose of occupier’s business or for a business in which both are interested. Customer In shop.  Licensee i.e., person who enters with occupier’ permission, express or implied for business in which he alone had interest. For instance guest of dinner.  Trespasser.

The occupier’s liability act, 1957 abolished the distinction between an invitee and licensee, and both are now termed as visitor under the act. The occupier now owes a single common duty of care. The question is: who is visitor? Every person who enters the premises with the permission or invitation of the occupier is a visitor. He may be an invitee, licensee or contractual entrant or any other, except a trespasser. No matter if the occupier expressly permits, the difficulty arises in the cases where a person enters the premises with implied permission. This is be decided objectively by assessing the inference arising from all relevant circumstances. In deciding such a question, some general principles have to kept in view. The burden of proof is on the entrant to show that he had implied permission from the occupier. Cont.…..

Any person who enters the premises to communicate with the occupier is presumed to have implied permission unless there is notice forbidding him to enter. Tolerance of repeated trespass does not confer any licence, but this factor may be taken into account in support of an implied licence. It is important to that the term visitor will also include any person who enters premises for any purpose in the exercise of a right conferred by law because such person are to be treated as permitted by occupier to be there for purpose, whether he infact has his permission or not.

Duty of the occupier to visitors. The common duty of care owed by an occupier to all his visitors is a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be seasonably safe in using the premise for the purpose for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there. The duty is not to ensure the visitor’s safety, but only to take reasonable care.

Adult or child visitor The difference between an adult visitor and child visitor is the child will meddle where the adult will not and so what is safe for an adult may not be safe for a child. Thus, what is an obvious danger for an adult visitor may be trap for child visitor. In such a case the occupier must guard the child visitors even against such danger.

Specialist visitor Where, however, the occupier can expect that a person in the exercise of his calling will appreciate and guard against risks incidental to his calling, he need not be warned about them.

Structure adjoining the highway The building adjoining the highway must be maintained in such a way so as not to be dangerous to the users of the highway. If the building is in a dangerous condition and any damage is caused to the users of the highway, the owner of the building will be liable. There is special obligation on the owner of adjoining premises for the safety of the structure which he keeps besides the highway. If these structures fall into disrepair so as to be potential danger to the passerby or to be a nuisance, the owner is liable to anyone using the highway who is injured by reason of the disrepair.

In such a case, it is no defence for the owner to prove that he neither knew nor ought to have known of the danger. In other word, the owner is legally responsible, irrespective of whether the damage is caused by a patent or latent defect. But where the owner does not know about the dangerous condition of the structure and the same could not be known in spite of reasonable inspection, he will not be liable if structure falls without any fault of the owner. Cont.…..

Occupier’s liability towards trespassers The duty of an occupier towards a trespasser comes the lowest in the scale in common law. The first question therefore is: who is trespasser? Trespasser is one who wrongfully enters on land in the possession of another and has neither right nor permission to be on land. It is important to note that a trespass becomes a licensee visitor, if the occupier acquiesces to the frequent acts of trespass and does not take effective steps to stop the trespass.

Duty of occupier towards trespass. The duty of an occupier towards a trespasser has not been dealt with by the occupier’s liability act, It is therefore necessary to trace the principles for determining the duty of an occupier towards the trespassers in common law.

THE END DHAMAAD

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