Thornton v. Shoe Lane Parking - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd [1971] 2 QB 163 is a leading English contract law

English contract law

English contract law is a body of law regulating contracts in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth , and the United States...

case. It gives a good example of the rule that a clause cannot be incorporated after a contract has been concluded, without reasonable notice before. Also, it was held that an automatic ticket machine was an offer, rather than an invitation to treat

Invitation to treat

Invitation to treat is a contract law term. It comes from the Latin phrase invitatio ad offerendum and means "inviting an offer". Or as Andrew Burrows writes, an invitation to treat is...

.

Although the case is important for these two propositions, today any exclusion of negligence liability for personal injury by businesses is prohibited by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates contracts by restricting the operation and legality of some contract terms. It extends to nearly all forms of contract and one of its most important functions is limiting the applicability of...

s 2(1) and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 is a UK statutory instrument, which implements the EU Unfair Consumer Contract Terms Directive into domestic law.Implemented under the European Communities Act 1972. See also, L95 OJ 29...

Sch 2, para(a).

Facts

Mr Thornton, "a free lance trumpeter of the highest quality", drove to the entrance of the multi storey car park on Shoe Lane, before attending a performance at Farringdon

Farringdon

Farringdon is a historic area of the City of London, represented today by the Wards of Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without. Farringdon is also used informally to refer to the area around Farringdon Station in the London Borough of Islington, some distance north of the historic locality.-City...

Hall with the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. He took a ticket from the machine and parked his car. It said

"this ticket is issued subject to the conditions of issue as displayed on the premises".

And on the car park pillars near the paying office there was a list, one excluding liability for

"injury to the Customer… howsoever that loss, misdelivery, damage or injury shall be caused".

Three hours later he had an accident before getting into his car. The car park argued that the judge should have held the matter regulated by this contract, not tort.

Judgment

Lord Denning MR held that the more onerous the clause, the better notice of it needed to be given. Moreover the contract was already concluded when the ticket came out of the machine, and so any condition on it could not be incorporated in the contract.
Megaw LJ and Sir Gordon Wilmer agreed with the onerous point, but reserved their opinions on where the contract was concluded. Furthermore, Sir Gordon Wilmer distinguished this from the other ticket cases based upon the fact that a human clerk proffered the ticket and the buyer had the opportunity to say I do not like those conditions.