Griffiths v Brown ; Griffiths v Lindsay
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 09 October 1998 |
| Date | 09 October 1998 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Judge Graham Jones
Duty of care - inebriated taxi passenger - taxi driver owes no duty
Where a taxi driver set down an inebriated passenger close to, but on the other side of the road from his stated destination, and near a pedestrian crossing, there was no duty of care owed to the passenger in the event of him being injured while crossing the road.
Judge Graham Jones, sitting as judge of the Queen's Bench Division, so stated when refusing to hold that a taxi driver, Terence Anthony Lindsay, the second defendant, owed a duty to his passenger, Michael David Griffiths, the plaintiff.
The first defendant, Anthony Leslie Brown, was the driver of a car which had struck the plaintiff while he was crossing the road. Liability was assessed at two-thirds Mr Brown, one-third Mr Griffiths.
Mr Christopher Wilson-Smith, QC and Mr William Coley for Mr Griffiths; Mr Michael Tillet, QC, for Mr Brown; Mr William Norris, QC and Mr Jonathan Watt-Pringle for Mr Lindsay
HIS LORDSHIP said that the obligation of Mr Lindsay ended when Mr Griffiths left the taxi and alighted on the near side on to the pavement. The question was whether there should be some special duty to him because he was not sober.
A taxi driver might not always stop at the precise destination but close by, unless the passenger insisted on it. But once the passenger had alighted, the obligation on the taxi driver would be brought to an end.
It was unfair, unreasonable and unworkable in practice for a taxi driver to make an assessment as to the sobriety of the passenger before setting him down.
He would also have to assess the risks in the passenger...
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