Byrne v Boadle is an English tort law

English tort law

English tort law concerns civil wrongs, as distinguished from criminal wrongs, in the law of England and Wales. Some wrongs are the concern of the state, and so the police can enforce the law on the wrongdoers in court – in a criminal case...

 case that first applied the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur

Res ipsa loquitur

In the common law of negligence, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur states that the elements of duty of care and breach can be sometimes inferred from the very nature of an accident or other outcome, even without direct evidence of how any defendant behaved...

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Facts

A barrel of flour fell from a second-storey window and hit the plaintiff on his head. Under these conditions, the plaintiff could not provide direct evidence

Direct evidence

Direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without an intervening inference...

 as to whether the person responsible for the barrel had breached his duty of care

Duty of care

In tort law, a duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring that they adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. It is the first element that must be established to proceed with an action in negligence. The claimant...

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Judgment

Initially, in the lower court the case was non-suited through a direct verdict because the plaintiff could provide no evidence.
Subsequently the appellate court concluded that, under these conditions, the fact of the accident itself provided sufficient circumstantial evidence

Circumstantial evidence

Circumstantial evidence is evidence in which an inference is required to connect it to a conclusion of fact, like a fingerprint at the scene of a crime...

 to establish the breach of a duty of care. Baron Pollock said the following.

External links

• Text of case