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plaintiff owned an area of land on which he farmed cattle. The defendant who owned an
adjoining area of woodland sold the rights to the foliage to a third party but retained
ownership of the land. A fence was located along the boundary, on the defendants land. The
fence had been well maintained for the past 40 years and for the past 19 years, upon
request by the occupier of the plaintiffs land, the fence had always been repaired by the
defendant to a standard that would specifically prevent the escape of cattle. The third
party felled a Yew tree which damaged the boundary fence, causing a breach in it. Two of
the plaintiffs cows escaped into the defendants land and fed on the Yew foliage. They
later died. The plaintiff sought damages from the defendant at Newport County Court but
this was rejected with the judgement being that the third party was responsible for the
cows escaping.
However, the plaintiff appealed and this was successfully held. It was judged that
although the defendant did not break the fence nor knew that the fence was broken and
although he was not necessarily responsible for fencing in his neighbours cattle; he was,
nevertheless responsible for these escaping cows because he had previously always
maintained the fence and that the plaintiff had assumed the fence would always exist in a
state of good repair. |