Hughes V Lord Advocate - Facts

Facts

On November 8, 1958 evening the appellant, an eight year old boy with his ten year old uncle was walking down Russell Road, Edinburgh. Some Post Office employees were repairing cables under the street. They opened a manhole on the surface of the road, which was nine feet deep and put a weather tent on it. A ladder was put inside the manhole for access. The tent was again covered with a tarpaulin for better protection, but the workmen left one of the corners a gap of two feet and six inch. They had also fixed four red paraffin lamps on the site to warn the traffic since 3.30pm. The workmen left the site at about 5pm for a tea break to a nearby Post Office building. Before leaving, they took out the ladder and put it on the ground outside the tent.

While the workmen were out, the plaintiff and his uncle arrived at the site and started meddling with the equipment. They picked up one of the lamps and entered the tent. They took the ladder along with which was kept outside the site in order to explore the manhole. Thereafter, they took a piece of rope (which was not a part of the Post Office equipment) and tied it to the lamp and went inside the manhole. After exploring the manhole they succeeded to come out of the manhole safely. Somehow, the appellant tripped over the lamp, and it fell into the manhole. The lamp broke, the paraffin within leaked, the paraffin vaporised which resulted to an explosion with flames reaching up to thirty feet. Due to the impact of the blast, the appellant fell into the hole and suffered severe injuries from burns.