On 1 Jan 2004 04:13:06 -0800, (Mike Lyle) wrote:

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message . ..
"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
om...
[...]
I never understand when this kind of topic comes up why people think
the law is "an ass" for providing that we should avoid putting
dangerous things in proximity to the public. We could all think of
plenty of ways in which a spiky fence might injure the person or
property of a perfectly innocent passer-by; and it's not much harder
to think of perfectly innocent reasons why one of us might need to
scramble over somebody else's boundary without permission.

Mike.

Go on then.

Others in the gang have mentioned a few genuine possibilities already;
but here goes:

My mother trips on a loose paving slab, grabs the nearest thing for
support, and a rusty iron spike goes through her hand.

Fairy nuff if it's a 3 foot fence.

You're walking down the road in the teeth of a rainstorm, and your
expensive umbrella or trench-coat (I know you'd have nothing but the
best) catches on a spike and gets ripped.

Tough luck. It's no more my fault for having pointy railings than if your flash
brolly gets turned inside out by the wind just as you're passing my house.

I'm steering an uncertain course back from the boozer one night and
some part of my marinaded anatomy connects with the projections;
fortunately, I don't bleed to death, but it's touch and go when I get
septicaemia.

But the rainings outside my house are 6 feet tall and you impaled *both* hands.
Hmmm...

I'm away on holiday, so the vicar can't ask me if it's ok to pop into
my garden to retrieve his hat, which has just been blown in there by
the wind.

The vic is sufficiently well known in our road to locate the keyholder and gain
access legitimately. IRL (in real life) one of the houses in our road is empty most
of the time, when the kids lose a football in that back garden even the smallest kid
knows they'll have to wait till the owner calls round **because it's dangerous to
climb the fence**. The small kid I have in mind is just five years old.

Etc, pretty well ad infinitum: these things do happen.

Yes they do, but what do we lose if we sue every time?

Mike.


Liz