Court case(1865) 3 H and C 596

The plaintiff, a customs officer, was lawfully passing in the course of his duty along a passage in front of a warehouse in the defendants' docks when six bags of sugar, which were being lowered by a crane operated by the defendants' servants, fell on him and injured him. There was no evidence as to how the bags came to fall. At the trial the judge directed a verdict for the defendants on the ground that there was no evidence of negligence, and the case was taken to the Court of Exchequer Chamber.

The Court of Exchequer Chamber ordered a new trial, holding that there was evidence of negligence to go to the jury. Erle CJ stated the principle: "There must be reasonable evidence of negligence. But where the thing is shown to be under the management of the defendant or his servants, and the accident is such as in the ordinary course of things does not happen if those who have the management use proper care, it affords reasonable evidence, in the absence of explanation by the defendants, that the accident arose from want of care." The falling of sugar bags from a crane under the defendants' control was such an accident.