LAWS86 Commercial Law

Charles owns an apartment in Auckland and is a collector of tropical fish which he keeps in a large aquarium in his lounge. He is on the 4^th floor of the apartment building and there are other apartments above and below him. One day he notices a puddle of water on the floor next to the tank and fearing a leak calls “Aquariums R Us” (ARS) to fix it. ARS instructs one of their plumbers, William, to do the job.

William arrives in the ARS van he has been assigned to use. He decides he will have to drain the tank to fix the leak properly which he does. Charles scoops out the fish and puts them in a smaller holding tank and then leaves to attend to some errands. William works on the aquarium until he is satisfied the leak has been found and sealed and then opens the taps to let the aquarium slowly fill with water again.

While William is waiting he walks around the lounge and notices a rusty old charcoal barbeque in the kitchen. He remembers he has some sausages in a cool bin in his van. He retrieves the sausages and takes the barbeque out onto the deck of the apartment believing that Charles won’t mind him using it. The barbeque though is old and unreliable and won’t start until William pours some methylated spirits onto the charcoal. To Williams surprise the barbeque suddenly shoots a stream of sparks upwards which starts a small fire on the deck above.

William rushes upstairs to warn Eric, the upstairs occupant, and they manage to put out the fire quickly, but not before the upstairs deck suffers significant damage. Eric sustains burns to his hands and arms which require medical treatment.

In the meantime, William has forgotten about the aquarium which first overflows, and then collapses, causing extensive water damage to the lounge room of the apartment beneath Charles apartment owned by Pablo.  The repair of the downstairs apartment and cost of ruined appliances will be $40,000. There was also a Picasso painting (inherited by Pablo from his aunt in Spain) which will cost $80,000 to repair.

The upstairs occupant would like to sue for the cost of repairing the deck and for medical expenses. The downstairs occupant would like to sue for the cost of fixing the water damage to her lounge room.

Advise whether William and/or ARS have any liability to either Erica or Pablo.