## Facts

- Byrne, a pedestrian, was walking along Scotland Road in Liverpool past Boadle’s shop and warehouse.
- Boadle was a flour dealer whose premises stored and handled barrels of flour.
- A barrel of flour fell from an upper part of the defendant’s premises and struck Byrne, knocking him down.
- No witness identified the specific mechanism or act that caused the barrel to fall.
- Byrne had no warning of danger and could not explain how the barrel came to fall.

## Issues

1. Whether, without direct proof of a specific negligent act, the fact that a flour barrel fell from the defendant’s premises onto a passerby is prima facie evidence of negligence sufficient to go to the jury.

## Decision

- The Court of Exchequer set aside the nonsuit and held the case should have been submitted to the jury.
- The court ruled that the barrel’s fall from the defendant’s premises onto a person lawfully in the street was prima facie evidence of negligence.
- The occurrence itself was sufficient to require the defendant to offer an explanation consistent with due care.

## Legal Principles

- Negligence may be inferred from the nature of an accident when the event is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur without negligence.
- When the injuring instrumentality is associated with the defendant’s premises and management, the accident may support an inference that the defendant (including servants under the defendant’s responsibility) failed to use reasonable care.
- Once the plaintiff shows such an occurrence, the plaintiff need not prove the exact negligent act or eliminate all non-negligent explanations; the defendant bears the burden of producing facts showing the accident happened without negligence.

## Conclusion

The court held that a flour barrel falling from a defendant’s warehouse onto a passerby provides enough circumstantial evidence to infer negligence and require jury determination, with the defendant responsible for explaining how the accident could have occurred without negligence.


Byrne v. Boadle, 2 H. & C. 722 (Exch. 1863)