Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd
Terms first seen on a ticket from an automatic machine come too late, and an unusual term needs especially clear notice.
Facts
Mr Thornton, a freelance trumpeter, drove into a multi storey car park in London that he had not used before. At the entrance, a notice stated the charges and that cars were parked at owners' risk. An automatic machine issued him with a ticket, which stated in small print that it was issued subject to the conditions displayed on the premises. Those conditions, displayed on a pillar inside the car park, excluded liability not only for damage to cars but also for injury to customers. When Mr Thornton returned to collect his car, he was seriously injured in an accident partly caused by the car park's negligence.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the car park could not rely on the conditions. Lord Denning MR analysed the contract as being made when the customer drove up to the machine: the offer was made by the proprietor holding the machine out as ready to receive money, and the customer accepted by driving in and taking the ticket. The conditions on the ticket and inside the car park came too late to be part of the contract. Megaw LJ and Sir Gordon Willmer agreed on the outcome, emphasising that a condition as unusual and onerous as one excluding liability for personal injury had to be brought to the customer's attention in the most explicit way, which had not been done.
Related cases on exclusion clauses and unfair terms
- Canada Steamship Lines Ltd v The King [1952] AC 192
- Chapelton v Barry Urban District Council [1940] 1 KB 532
- Curtis v Chemical Cleaning and Dyeing Co [1951] 1 KB 805
- Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank plc [2001] UKHL 52, [2002] 1 AC 481
- George Mitchell (Chesterhall) Ltd v Finney Lock Seeds Ltd [1983] 2 AC 803
- Goodlife Foods Ltd v Hall Fire Protection Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1371
- Hollier v Rambler Motors (AMC) Ltd [1972] 2 QB 71
- Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd [2025] UKSC 33
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