“Have you ever felt pressured to cross the road quickly just because a car is waiting for you?
That sudden urge not to ‘get in the way’?
Well, back in 1939, a landmark ruling in Liverpool gave us a clear lesson: there is no single standard for walking down the road, one must take people as one finds them.
The case of Daly v. Liverpool Corporation takes us back to the Liverpool of 1938, when Mrs. Daly, a 69-year-old woman, was hit by a bus. When she sued the city, the Council’s defence tried to blame Mrs Daly, claiming she had been negligent.
But this did not convince Judge Stable. For him, the law could not be so absurd as to leave someone unprotected simply for being slow or elderly. There is no such thing as a ‘hypothetical pedestrian’. Mrs Daly might not have reacted as well as a young person, but she did her best to avoid the accident. And that was enough.
Regarding the driver, the Judge decided he was responsible for the accident, yet he was very empathetic. He recognised that public transport drivers face two irreconcilable duties: meeting the route’s schedule and driving with extreme caution.
In the end, the Judge ruled in favour of Mrs Daly, ordering the City of Liverpool to pay one hundred pounds in damages. So, every time you feel slow while walking down the road, remember Judge Stable, who would surely be on your side. As he said, “One must take people as one finds them.”
Reference
Daly v Liverpool Corporation [1939] 2 All ER 142
