ABSTRACT
Rule nisi obtained by the defendant for an order of non suit in an action in which the plaintiff claimed damages for injuries caused by the defendant’s gas lamp falling on her head.
The plaintiff was a barmaid living in Dulwich and the defendant a licensed victualler who kept the Hampshire Hog Inn in the Strand.
The plaintiff was walking along the Strand at about 3.30 pm on 15 November 1874, when opposite the defendant’s house, one of the gas lamps hanging from the house over the pavement about 15 ft fell and injured her in its fall. At the time of the accident the gas was out of order and the defendant had engaged a gas fitter named Weaver to put it to rights. The gas fitter had placed a ladder against the bracket of the lamp and was just mounting the ladder for the purpose of reaching the lamp and blowing the water out of the gas pipe, when the bracket gave way from the weight of the ladder and the lamp at once fell. In the preceding August the defendant had contracted the services of a gas fitter named Chappell for the repair of all his lamps, including the one in question. Chappell had done certain repairs, for which the defendant had paid him.
