On a Sunday, when the pit was idle, deceased was on the main decking level preparing to patch a hole in the wooden fencing which enclosed the side of an inclined screen at a point immediately above a teeming-bye hatchway. He stepped on the hatchway cover when it tilted and he fell through to the ground below — a distance of 22 ft. 7 ins. He sustained internal injuries from which he died later the same day. Someone — probably deceased himself — had omitted to replace the cover properly after using the hatchway some time previously. Had deceased taken the elementary precaution of examining the position of the hatchway cover before stepping on to it, or had the cover been fixed by hinges, the fatality might have been avoided