Written by In Prouten v Chapman [2021] NSWCA 207, the Court considered whether homeowners owe a duty to remove any hazardous objects on their land to ensure the safety of their entrants.
While delivering mail, a postal delivery rider (the plaintiff) suffered injuries when colliding with a concealed bed protruding from a caravan parked on the nature strip adjacent to the defendant’s land. The plaintiff claimed that the occupiers of the premises owed a duty to take reasonable care for the safety of entrants under s 5B of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) and breached that duty by parking their caravan on land owned by the Council over which the public enjoyed a right of way.
The Court found the risk of harm was not foreseeable, as the caravan was an obvious, bulky and stationery object which would have been easy to see and avoid. The risk was also so small that, it could not be expected that a reasonable homeowner would have foreseen that leaving the caravan’s bed extended posed a hazard to the public using the nature strip.
This case demonstrates that homeowners are not expected to remove all potential hazards from their property and where something constitutes a slight risk of harm, a reasonable response can be to do nothing.