Municipality shall be liable to pay compensation in case a person dies due to fall of shade fixed on ceiling of public toilet

Claimants seeking compensation from Municipality for the act of negligence of the Municipality officials in permitting a three-decade old toilet in Bus Stand, to be used by the public. On a fateful night, as there was heavy rain, the petitioner's husband, a mason, aged about 41 years, took cover under the sunshade of a toilet building in a Bus Stand maintained by the Municipality. Due to a heavy downpour, the roof of the toilet collapsed crushing the petitioner's husband to death and injuring another person.

Municipality submits that it was a natural calamity and there was no negligence on their part and the Municipality is not responsible for the fall of shade, as the toilet was maintained properly and the building was in a stable and sound condition, the said contention has to be rejected for the reason that the shade had been fixed to the toilet building only by the Municipality and it cannot surface on its own. The necessity to fix the shade with iron rods has not been explained by the Municipality. In any event, the shade was part of the toilet building and it had been put up by the Municipality and therefore, the Municipality alone could be held negligent for the falling of the shade on the petitioner's husband. If the shade had been properly fixed, then there would have been no occasion for it to fall.

Therefore, it is the Municipality Municipality's negligence, due to which the accident had occurred, resulting in the death of the petitioner's husband and the Municipality is liable to pay compensation to the petitioner. Compensation payable has to be calculated following the formula adopted in motor accident cases.

Appearing counsel/s : Mr.M. Purushothaman, Mr.S. Kamalesh Kannan, Mr.B. Anand, Mr.A.S. Thambusamy, Mr. Bala Ramesh

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