Carmarthenshire CC v Lewis [1955] UKHL 2 (17 February 1955)

A child under four years old escaped from a nursery school onto a busy street, causing a lorry driver to swerve and fatally crash while avoiding the child. The House of Lords held the local education authority liable for negligently failing to prevent the child's escape, establishing a duty of care owed to highway users.

Facts

David Morgan, a child aged approximately three years and nine months, was a pupil at a nursery school operated by Carmarthenshire County Council. On 19th April 1951, around 12.15 p.m., the child’s teacher, Miss Morgan, left David and another child briefly in a classroom while she attended to another injured child. During her absence of approximately ten minutes, David escaped from the school premises through an unlocked gate, entered College Street, and caused an accident. The Respondent’s husband, a lorry driver, swerved to avoid the child and struck a lamp post, resulting in his death.

School Layout

The school premises included a nursery school for children aged 3-5, an infants’ school for ages 5-7, and a junior school for ages 7-11. Access to the street was available through gates from the playgrounds, including a gate leading to a lane connected to College Street.

Issues

1. Whether Miss Morgan was negligent in leaving the children unattended.

2. Whether the County Council owed a duty of care to users of the highway to prevent young children from escaping onto the street.

3. Whether any breach of duty was causally connected to the lorry driver’s death.

Judgment

The House of Lords dismissed the appeal by a majority (Lords Goddard, Reid, Tucker, and Keith of Avonholm; Lord Oaksey dissenting).

On Miss Morgan’s Conduct

The majority found Miss Morgan was not personally negligent. Her actions in attending to an injured child were reasonable, and she could not have anticipated that David would immediately leave the premises.

On the Council’s Liability

The majority held that the Council was nevertheless liable. The escape of a child of such tender age onto a busy street raised a presumption of negligence that the Council failed to rebut. Lord Goddard stated that the presence of a child in the street clearly called for explanation from the defendants, who failed to show adequate precautions had been taken to prevent children from accessing the highway.

Lord Reid emphasised that it was foreseeable that a child might be left alone briefly, might leave the classroom, and might reach the street if gates were not properly secured. He noted that once a child was in the street, injury to other road users was as foreseeable as injury to the child itself.

On Duty to Highway Users

The Lords rejected the analogy with cases involving straying animals, which derive from historical rules about unfenced land inapplicable to children. Lord Keith of Avonholm observed that the duty owed to the child to prevent traffic accidents necessarily encompassed foreseeable injury to others involved in such accidents.

Implications

This case established that those in charge of very young children near highways owe a duty of care not only to the children but also to highway users who might be injured as a result of a child’s escape onto the road. The decision confirmed that where a young child is found unaccompanied on a busy street, there is a presumption of negligence against those responsible for the child’s care which they must rebut. The case distinguished the position of young children from that of straying animals, refusing to extend the immunity applicable to animals escaping onto highways to situations involving children.

Verdict: Appeal dismissed. The Carmarthenshire County Council was held liable in negligence for the death of the lorry driver caused by the escape of a child from their nursery school onto the highway.

Source: Carmarthenshire CC v Lewis [1955] UKHL 2 (17 February 1955)