Lips v Older
Mr Lips was the tenant of a bedsit in a house owned by Mr Older.

He was seriously injured when he fell from the path leading up to the front door into the well area in front of the basement flat about 9 ft below.

He claimed that, having lost his balance while looking for his keys and holding a heavy tool bag, he had toppled over a small 2 ft high restraining wall along the path. He sued the landlord for compensation.

The judge decided that Mr Lips was an alcoholic who had been drinking earlier that day. The accident had probably happened when he was sitting on the low wall and had fallen off it because the alcohol had contributed to a loss of balance.

But the judge also decided that a landlord had to expect that some of his tenants might return home having been drinking.

Faced with the danger of serious injury that would be caused by a fall from the path, a reasonable landlord would have provided a fixed handrail or taken some other inexpensive measure to improve safety and help prevent a fall.

However, because he was mainly to blame for the accident, Mr Lips' compensation award was cut by two-thirds.