Hong Kong Ordinances

OCCUPIERS LIABILITY ORDINANCE - SECT 3

Extent of occupier's ordinary duty

(1) An occupier of premises owes the same duty, the "common duty of care", to
all his visitors, except in so far as he is free to and does extend, restrict,
modify or exclude his duty to any visitor or visitors by agreement or
otherwise.

(2) The common duty of care is a duty to take such care as in all the
circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be
reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited
or permitted by the occupier to be there.

(3) The circumstances relevant for the present purpose include the degree of
care, and of want of care, which would ordinarily be looked for in such a
visitor, so that (for example) in proper cases-

   (a)  an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful than
        adults; and

   (b)  an occupier may expect that a person, in the exercise of his calling,
        will appreciate and guard against any special risks ordinarily
        incident to it, so far as the occupier leaves him free to do so.

(4) In determining whether the occupier of premises has discharged the
common duty of care to a visitor, regard is to be had to all the
circumstances, so that (for example)-

   (a)  where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger of which he had been
        warned by the occupier, the warning is not to be treated without more
        as absolving the occupier from liability, unless in all the
        circumstances it was enough to enable the visitor to be reasonably
        safe; and

   (b)  where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger due to the faulty
        execution of any work of construction, maintenance or repair by an
        independent contractor employed by the occupier, the occupier is not
        to be treated without more as answerable for the danger if in all the
        circumstances he had acted reasonably in entrusting the work to an
        independent contractor and had taken such steps (if any) as he
        reasonably ought in order to satisfy himself that the contractor was
        competent and that the work had been properly done.

(5) The common duty of care does not impose on an occupier any obligation to a
visitor in respect of risks willingly accepted as his by the visitor (the
question whether a risk was so accepted to be decided on the same principles
as in other cases in which one person owes a duty of care to another).

(6) For the purposes of this section, persons who enter premises for any
purpose in the exercise of a right conferred by law are to be treated as
permitted by the occupier to be there for that purpose, whether they in fact
have his permission or not. [cf. 1957 c.31 s.2 U.K.]