- A Western Cape landlord has been held fully liable for injuries suffered by an eight-year-old boy.
- Judge R Parker found the sliding gate lacked important safety features, making the accident both foreseeable and preventable.
- The landlord’s attempt to blame the boy’s mother was rejected entirely.
A Western Cape landlord has been found fully liable after a heavy sliding gate fell onto an eight-year-old boy. Judge R Parker ruled that the property owner’s wrongful and negligent actions caused the child’s life-changing injuries.
The court ordered the landlord to pay damages to the child. The amount will be determined by agreement or in the next stage of proceedings. The landlord was also ordered to cover the plaintiff’s legal costs, including counsel’s fees.
Boy trapped beneath heavy gate
The incident took place on 19 September 2017 at a rented property in Ruiterwacht, where the boy lived with his mother. The property was surrounded by a wall and accessed by a sliding gate that moved on wheels along a track. Although it was originally designed as a motorised gate, it was being used manually.
After arriving home, the mother opened the gate and walked towards their home, asking her son to close it behind her. About 10 seconds later, she heard a loud bang and rushed back to find the heavy gate lying on top of him. She could not lift it because it was so heavy, so neighbours helped free the child before he was rushed to hospital.
The boy suffered a severe head injury, a fractured skull, a haematoma on the front of his head, scalp cuts, scrapes on his forehead and a broken right thigh bone.
Tenants warned the gate was dangerous
The landlord denied responsibility, saying the gate was safe and claiming the child had slammed it shut so hard that it broke the stopper and derailed. He also tried to blame the boy’s mother, alleging she had not supervised him properly.
Judge R Parker rejected the landlord’s story after hearing evidence from tenants who described the gate as dangerous. One tenant said it had to be held while opening and needed to be closed slowly because it could run off the rail. Another testified that the gate had fallen or almost fallen before and that tenants had complained about its condition several times.
The judge found the tenants to be credible witnesses and accepted their version over the landlord’s.
A bracket is not a stop
Engineering expert Anton Krause told the court that the gate was missing crucial end stops and stabilising features needed to prevent it from derailing or tipping over. He testified that a gate of this size and weight was a foreseeable risk, especially where children lived, and that proper safety mechanisms would likely have prevented the accident.
Judge Parker agreed, finding that there was no proper stopper in place when the incident happened. The judge made it clear that the bracket fitted to the gate was not the required safety mechanism to stop it from rolling off the track. The judgment states, “A bracket is not a stop.”
Judge Parker concluded that the landlord had failed to take reasonable steps to make the gate safe, despite the clear danger it posed to tenants and their children.
Mother cleared of blame
The landlord’s attempt to blame the boy’s mother was dismissed after the court found no evidence that she had neglected to supervise her son or contributed to the accident.
In the final ruling, Judge Parker said the incident was caused by the wrongful and negligent conduct of the landlord, declaring the landlord fully responsible for the child’s injuries. The only issue left is how much the child will be awarded in damages.
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