Cases - Dutton v Bognor Regis Urban District Council

Record details

Name

Dutton v Bognor Regis Urban District Council

Date

[1972]

Citation

1 QB 373

Legislation

Public Health Act 1936

Keywords

Negligence - duty of care - local authority - power to inspect building operations - enforcement of the regulations - inspector failing to make proper inspection of foundations before granting approval - house built with latent defect in foundations - subsequent purchaser suffering damage - whether local authority liable for negligent inspection

Summary

It was held by the Court of Appeal that a local authority exercising statutory functions of building control under the Public Health Act 1936 was liable for the negligence of its building inspector in carrying out an inspection under the byelaws.

The plaintiff in this case, Sadie Dutton, was the second owner of a house that had been built in 1959. The notice of approval of the plans issued by the council contained a footnote stating that 'all foundations must be examined by the local authority's surveyor before being covered up'. The council's building inspector inspected the excavations for the foundation and the works at damp-proof-course level and approved them for the purpose of the then building byelaws. However, the work did not comply with the building byelaws and should not have been approved. A competent inspection would have revealed that the house was built on a former rubbish tip.

As a result, in 1961, the condition of the house deteriorated, following subsidence. Sadie Dutton sued the builder and the council. The action against the builder was settled out of court, but the case against the council proceeded, and the council was found liable for the negligence of its building inspector.

It was held that the Public Health Act 1936, and the building byelaws made under it, conferred on the council such an extensive power over building operations in its area that as a matter of policy it must carry with it a duty at common law to take reasonable care to see that the building byelaws were satisfied. The negligent approval of the foundations that led to the building and putting on the market of a house with a latent defect was a breach of that duty of care, so that a person to whom the duty was owed who suffered damage by the negligence could bring an action against the council as the employer of the negligent building inspector.

This principle was subsequently confirmed by the House of Lords in Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728; [1977] 2 WLR 1024; 75 LGR 555; All ER 492 and was overruled in Murphy v Brentwood District Council.