Wells v Cooper
A person doing a household repair, such as fitting a door handle, is judged by the standard of a reasonably competent amateur carpenter, not a professional.
Facts
Mr Cooper, an amateur carpenter, fitted a new handle to the back door of his house himself. Some months later, Mr Wells, who was visiting the house on business, pulled on the handle to close the door against the wind, and the handle came off. He fell backwards and was injured. He claimed that the handle had been fitted negligently, because the screws were too short.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that Mr Cooper was not liable. Jenkins LJ said that the standard of care required of a householder doing minor repairs of this kind is that of a reasonably competent carpenter doing the work as an amateur, and the work was of a kind that an ordinary householder would do himself. Mr Cooper had done the work to the standard of a reasonably competent amateur, and the fault would not have been obvious to a professional either.
Related cases on breach of duty
- Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks Co (1856) 11 Exch 781
- Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee [1957] 1 WLR 582
- Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority [1998] AC 232
- Bolton v Stone [1951] AC 850
- Daborn v Bath Tramways Motor Co Ltd [1946] 2 All ER 333
- Dunnage v Randall [2015] EWCA Civ 673, [2016] QB 639
- Glasgow Corporation v Muir [1943] AC 448
- Latimer v AEC Ltd [1953] AC 643
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