Negligence Flashcards
Negligence has a 3 stage test:
Did D owe a duty of care?
Was the duty breached ?
Did the breach cause the damage?
Stage 1
Must be proved that D owed a duty of care
Obvious duty (Robinson)
Don’t need Caparo test
Stage 2
D must have breached duty of care
Objective test- Alderson B in Blyth v Birmingham waterworks defined breach as “Doing something a reasonable person wouldn’t do or not doing something a reasonable person would do”
Characteristic 1
If D is an expert or possesses a certain skill they will be judged by the standards of other reasonably competent professionals (Bolam/bolitho)
Characteristic 2
If D is inexperienced/learner they will be judged by the standards of someone experienced and competent (Nettleship v Weston)
Characteristic 3
Children are judged by the standard of another reasonable child of the same age (Mullins v Richard)
Risk factors
Risk factors can raise or lower the standard of care required by a reasonable person
Probability of harm
More care to be taken if there is a higher risk. Reasonable man does not need to take precautions against smaller risks but does need to against bigger risks (Bolton v Stone)
What is the seriousness/magnitude of the risk?
Court needs to consider how serious potential injury could be the bigger the risk of injury the more care that needs to be taken (Paris v Stepney)
The cost and practicality of precautions
If the cost of taking the precautions is too high the D may not be in breach (Latimer)
Stage 3
Did breach cause damage to the C (causation issue)
Factual causation
But for the D’s actions would the damage have happened anyway? (Barnett v Chelsea)
Legal causation
Remoteness-was the damage foreseeable or was it too remote? If it’s too remote D is not the legal cause (wagon mound no1)
There must me…
Intervening acts which break the chain of causation
Think skull rule
Robinson v Post office D must take victim as he finds him
