The defendant (Sutton Council) owned a block of flats. In 1987 a boat was brought onto the grounds of the flats and abandoned in an area where children played. The residents of the flats complained to the council and in 1988 the council placed a sticker on the boat stating that it would be removed within 7 days unless claimed by its owner. In 1989 the claimant — a 14-year-old boy — and a friend saw the boat when they were walking past the flats and in 1990 the two boys returned to the boat, planning to repair it and take it to Cornwall to sail it. They used a jack to prop it up but this collapsed, causing the boat to fall on the claimant, leaving him paralysed.
While the council admitted it should have moved the boat as it was reasonably foreseeable that children would play on it, it denied liability on the basis that it was not foreseeable that the claimant would try to repair the boat. The High Court and the Court of Appeal upheld this argument.
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