Duty of Care Flashcards
Define negligence
Negligence is an act or failure to act which causes injury or damage to another person or their property
What are the three stages to proving liability in negligence?
1) D owes a duty of care to the claimant
2) D breaches that duty
3) The breach causes reasonably foreseeable loss, injury or damage
What case defined negligence and what was the definition?
Blyth v Birmingham waterworks (1856) defined negligence as ‘failing to do something which the reasonable person would do or doing something which the reasonable person would not do’
What is a duty of care and where it is defined?
Donoghue and Stevenson ‘you must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour’
What is the three-part test in Caparo v DIckman?
- Was damage of harm reasonably foreseeable?
- Is there sufficiently proximate relationship between C and D?
- Is it fair, just, and reasonable to impose a duty of care?
When is the Caparo test used?
As a last resort considering the other tests
What happened in Donoghue and Stevenson (1932)?
Mrs donoghue want to a cafe and bought a glass of ginger beer that contained a rotting snail
She wanted to claim compensation for negligence
What is the neighbour principle?
the person who is owed a duty of care by the defendant. It is not the person living next door: it is anyone you ought to bear in mind, who could be injured by your act or omission
In what case was presented the issue of developing duty of care?
In Dorset Yacht Co. V Home Office (1970)
What is a case example of Damage or reasonably foreseeable harm?
Kent v Griffiths - The claimant was suffering an asthma attack and an ambulance was called to take her to hospital, and the ambulance failed to come causing C to have a respiratory arrest.
What is a case example of Proximity of relationship?
Bournhill v Young - Pregnant woman heard an accident, and had such a a shock she later gave birth to a still birth and sued.
Using the neighbour test she had to prove she was proximate to the motorcyclist so he owed a duty of care, courts decided no
What are the three types of proximity?
Spatial proximity (space-physically close)}
Proximity by relationship
Time proximity (was C close in time to D action to be affected
What happened in Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police (2018)
An elderly woman is injured when 2 police officers try to arrest a drug dealer in a busy street. They should have looked around first to see it was safe to do so but didn’t. The Supreme Court decided that It is fair and reasonable to impose a duty of care on the police where a third party causes harm to an individual because of a positive act done by the police.
Where was the two stage test established and why?
Anns v Merton
- structural problems with a building
Two stage test:
1) Is there sufficient ‘proximity or neighbourhood’ between C and D such that in D’s reasonable contemplation, carelessness on his part might cause damage to C?
2) Were there any considerations which ought to ‘negative, or to reduce or limit’ that duty?
What is a case demonstrating ‘fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty’
Hill v chief constable of west Yorkshire
It was pointed out that imposing a duty of care on police (and allowing them to be sued) could lead to policing being carried out in a defensive way,
Which might divert police resources and attention away from the prevention and detection of crime. This could lead to lower standards of policing, not higher ones.
