Duty Of Care Flashcards
What rule was established from the main case?
Lord Atkins established that ‘you must take care to avoid acts or omissions that can injure your neighbour
What is the main case used in duty of care?
Donoghue v Stevenson
What case formed the 3 part test?
Caparo v Dickman
What is the 1st test?
Is the loss reasonably foreseeable?
Bourhill v Young: it wasn’t reasonably foreseeable because the pregnant woman merely heard the accident and had a miscarriage from the shock;
Langley v Dray: it was reasonably foreseeable that the police officer would crash his car during a high speed criminal pursuit.
Was there proximity between the defendant and the claimant?
Where there is a physical injury, it’s likely to find physical proximity in terms of time and space.
Bourhill v Young: claimant suffered nervous shock but was not part of the accident in the same time and space so there’s no physical proximity.
Watson v BBBC: professional proximity as claimant was fighting under BBBC regulations in the title bout.
Is it fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty of care?
Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire: not fair for police to owe duty of care as there isn’t enough police officers to look all potential victims of crime, hence it will open the ‘floodgates of litigation’.
Kent v Griffiths: was fair for ambulance to owe duty of care as it was for a specific patient.
How would you conclude duty of care?
If all tests are proved, the court will conclude that the defendant owed the claimant a duty of care.
