Gulliksen dead and McGeown fatally wounded? An important case for highway lawyers
Barrister:
Areas of law:

2 June 2020
More higher court success for Matthew White in a case of significance for claims involving accidents on the highway.
Matthew White, of St John’s Chambers’ personal injury team, successfully represented the claimant in Barlow v. Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council [2020] EWCA Civ 696.
He has written a piece commenting on the decision here.
The judgment itself can be found here.
The key points are:
- For a highway to be “a highway constructed by a highway authority” so as to be considered highway maintainable at public expense,
- the highway must be constructed by an authority exercising its highway authority functions (i.e. this Court of Appeal has disagreed with Sedley LJ in Gulliksen); and
- the highway must have been constructed by the highway authority after 1959.
- If a claimant is permitted to be on the defendant’s land for reasons other than the existence of a highway, it has been suggested (obiter) that the rule in Gautret v. Egerton/ McGeown v. Northern Ireland Housing Executive which would mean that no duty of care is owed in relation to accidents on the highway does not apply.