embankment was "the architect of his own misfortune,'' a judge ruled yesterday.

Niels Peter Allerup Sr. sued the operators of Clearview Cottages Mr. and Mrs.

Gerald Paynter on behalf of his son after the June 21, 1985 fall left Niels Allerup Jr. in a wheelchair with limited use of his hands.

Allerup, who was 27 at the time, stepped over a wall onto rough ground at the edge of the cottages on North Shore Road in Hamilton Parish and apparently fell down a steep slope to the railway cut, Supreme Court was told.

When taken by ambulance to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, staff who admitted him described him as intoxicated. There was evidence that Allerup drank two or three beers earlier in the day, but neither he nor a colleague who was with him in the hours leading up to the 11 p.m. fall were called as witnesses.

Puisne Judge the Hon Mr. Justice Ward dismissed the claim for personal injuries, loss, and damages, with costs.

He rejected the plaintiff's position that the Paynters were negligent in failing to fence the northern boundary of the cottage property and erect signs warning visitors of the dangers of the railway cut.

"In determinedly going over the wall into the rough ground the plaintiff was not taking reasonable care for his own safety,'' Mr. Justice Ward said. "The embankment was unlit in the darkness of the night, and it was unreasonable of the plaintiff to run the risk of injuries under these conditions.'' The Paynters had to guard against dangers which might "reasonably be anticipated,'' but "one must always distinguish between a reasonable probability and a fantastic probability.'' The wall Allerup stepped from "clearly marked the outer limit of the tended part of the premises,'' and "it was not foreseeable that the plaintiff would jump from the wall into the rough ground.'' Mr. Justice Ward cited the following words from a 1927 court ruling: "When you invite a person into your house to use the staircase, you do not invite him to slide down the bannisters.'' The Puisne Judge said he commiserated with Allerup, described as "a dynamic young man'' who wanted to become an airline pilot and was commissioned a US Air Force pilot and aircraft commander at 27, the youngest allowable age for such advancement.

But despite that, "we cannot and should not cast the blame ... on someone else,'' he said.

Given the large number of cliffs, slopes, and precipices about Bermuda, "it would indeed be a novel proposition that all landowners with lands adjacent to the railway cut had a duty to fence lest visitors to their properties should either deliberately or inadvertently fall into the railway cut,'' he said.

"Visitors are expected to behave reasonably when approaching slopes, precipices, and cliffs.'' Allerup stepped onto the wall to show his friends he was not intoxicated, the court was told.