Hillen and Pettigrew v ICI (Alkali) Ltd (1936) AC 65
This case involved stevedores who were lawfully on a barge for the purpose of discharging it. They nevertheless were held to have become trespassers when they went onto an inadequately supported hatch cover in order to unload some of the cargo. In this case Lord Aitken stated (at pg 69-70):
"This duty to an invitee only extends so long as and so far as the invitee is making what can reasonably be contemplated as an ordinary and reasonable use of the premises by the invitee for the purposes for which he has been invited. He is not invited to use any part of the premises for purposes which he knows are wrongfully dangerous and constitute an improper use. As Scrutton L.J. has pointedly said: 'When you invite a person into your house to use the staircase you do not invite him to slide down the bannisters.' (The Calgarth [1926] P. 93, 110.) So far as he sets foot on so much of the premises as lie outside the invitation or uses them for purposes which are alien to the invitation he is not an invitee but a trespasser, and his rights must be determined accordingly. In the present case the stevedores knew that they ought not to use the covered hatch in order to load cargo from it; for them for such a purpose it was out of bounds; they were trespassers. The defendants had no reason to contemplate such a use; they had no duty to take any care that the hatch when covered was safe for such a use; they had no duty to warn anyone that it was not fit for such use."
The stevedores could therefore not complain that the barge owners should have warned them that the hatch cover was not adequately supported.
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