Before Their Lordships
Lord Reid
Viscount Radcliffe
Lord Hodson
Lord Pearce
Lord Donovan
…………………….A…………………….
Lord Reid
my lords,
This case arises out of the accidental explosion of a charge at a quarry belonging to the Appellants which caused injuries to the Respondent George Shatwell and his brother, James, who were both qualified shotfirers.
On 8th June, 1960, these two men and another shotfirer, Beswick, hadbored and filled 50 shot holes and had inserted electric detonators and connected them up in series. Before firing, it was necessary to test the circuit for continuity. This should have been done by connecting long wires so that the men could go to a shelter some 80 yards away and test from there. They had not sufficient wire with them and Beswick went off to get more. The testing ought not to have been done until signals had been given so that other men could take shelter and these signals were not due to be given for at least another hour.
Soon after Beswick had left George said to his brother ” Must we test” them “, meaning shall we test them, and James said ” yes “. The testing is done by passing a weak current through the circuit in which a small galvano-meter is included and if the needle of the instrument moves when a connection is made the circuit is in order. So George got a galvanometer and James handed two short wires to him. Then George applied the wires to the galvanometer and the needle did not move. This showed that the circuit was defective so the two men went round inspecting the connections. They saw nothing wrong and George said that that meant there was a dud detonator somewhere, and decided to apply the galvanometer to each individual detonator. James handed two other wires to him and George used them to apply the galvanometer to the first detonator. The result was an explosion which injured both men.
This method had been regularly used without mishap until the previous year. Then some research done by the Appellants showed that it might be unsafe and in October, 1959, the Appellants gave orders that testing must in future be done from a shelter and a lecture was given to all the shotfirers, including the Shatwells, explaining the position. Then in December, 1959, new statutory regulations were made (1959 No. 2259) probably because the Ministry had been informed of the results of the Appellants’ research. These regulations came into operation in February, 1960, and the Shatwells were aware of them. But some of the shotfirers appear to have gone on in the old way. An instance of this came to the notice of the management in May, 1960, and the management took immediate action and revoked the shot-firing certificate of the disobedient man, and told the other shotfirers about this. George admitted in evidence that he knew all this. He admitted that they would only have had to wait ten minutes until Beswick returned with the long wires. When asked why he did not wait, his only excuse was that he could not be bothered to wait.
