Under what circumstances will an occupier be liable for injuries or other losses suffered by persons on his land?

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Under what circumstances will an occupier be liable for injuries or other losses suffered by persons on his land?

The question of occupier’s liability is simple in fact, but complex in terms of the various definitive elements it contains, as well as posing a challenge to answer concisely, given the vastness and detail of pertinent statute as well as case-law. The following essay will attempt to address the issue with briefness and precision, beginning with defining the term “occupier” and then considering the classes of persons to whom an occupier would be liable, as well as the degrees and circumstances of this liability.

Definition of an “occupier”

A person is generally considered to be an “occupier” whenever he “has a sufficient degree of control over premises that he ought to realize that any failure on his part to use care may result in injury to a person coming lawfully there… In order to be an occupier it is not necessary for a person to have entire control over the premises. He need not have exclusive occupation. Two or more people may be ‘occupiers’.” In this case, the defendants owned a pub run by an outside manager. The manager was allowed to use the first floor of the pub as his own private accommodation. A guest of the manager was killed falling down the stairs on he first floor of the pub It was held that the defendants were occupiers if the pub and had therefore owed the deceased a duty of care.

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Categories of persons and the occupier’s liability towards them:

Having defined an occupier with some degree of clarity, it would be logical to proceed to the people who might be injured on an occupier’s premises, and who the occupier would therefore be liable to, as well as under what circumstances this liability would be triggered.

Visitors:

The first category of persons who could be injured on occupier’s premises would be a visitor. In order to qualify as a visitor under law, the person in question must have been invited or permitted to enter those premises by the occupier or ...

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