Doughty v. Turner Manufacturing Co.

1 All E.R. 98 (1964)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Doughty (P) was employed by Turner (D). P was sent to deliver a message to a foreman who was working in a heat treatment room. In that room, there were cauldrons which held molten liquid sodium cyanide which could reach 800 degrees centigrade when electric current was passed through electrodes lowered into the material. In that room, D subjected metal parts to heat by immersion them into the molten liquid. Loose covers of asbestos cement were used to conserve the heat over the cauldrons. The material for the covers, called sindanyo had been used in England and the U.S. for such purposes for 20 years. When the electrodes were being cleaned, someone knocked them into the bath. Two men moved closer to see what happened. After a minute or two, the molten liquid erupted from the bath injuring bystanders and setting fire to things it fell upon. P at that very moment was standing by the side of the foreman and was injured. It was eventually discovered that the sindanyo created water when heated and the water caused the eruption. P sued D. The judge held that D did not appreciate that the immersion would produce an explosion and held that D was not to blame for not appreciating it. Then the judge held that it must have been common knowledge that there were substances which immersed would cause such an explosion and that every possible precaution should have been taken to avoid having things fall into them. The judge held that the inadvertence of the workmen in knocking the cover into the cauldron was negligence. The employers were not negligent in failing to foresee the chemical changes or the eruption which would result. They should have foreseen that there was a danger from splashing metal on a cover being dropped into the cauldron. P got 150 pounds. D appealed.