Negligence Flashcards
definition
where the d owes c duty of care
duty is breached and causes damage to c
stage 1
owe duty of care
(donoghue v stevenson) neighboring principle, you owe a duty of care to ur neighbour or anything directly affected by your actions
(robinson) obvious duty if care no need for (caparo v dickman) test
stage 2 OBJECTIVE TEST
breach of duty
(alderson b in blyth v bham water works) defined breach as doing something the ordinary man wouldn’t do or not doing something the ordinary man would do
characteristics of the d
expert (bolom) held to standards of other reasonably competent professionals
inexperienced (nettleship v weston) held to standard of experienced and competent
children (mullins v richard’s) reasonable child of a similar age
risk factors lower raise standard of care 1)
Probability of harm - reasonavme man does not need to take precautions against small risks but does need to against big or ones more likely to happen (Bolton v Stone)
risk factor 2)
seriousness magnitude of risk- courts must consider how serious the injury could potentially had been. bigger the risk the more care that needs to be taken (Paris v stepney council)
risk factor 3
cost and practicality of precautions, if the cost of taking precautions is too high then the d may not be in breach (Latimer)
SR 1
possible benefits of the risk , some risks have benefit for society (Watt v hertfordshire council)
stage 3
breach cause damage issue of causation
causation 1
factual causation (chelsea v barnett hospital) but for the ds actions and omissions would the damage had occurred
causation 2
legal causation (wagon mound 1)
remoteness of the damage, whether it was reasonably foreseeable or too remote
causation 3
must be no new intervening acts
thin skull rule
(smith v leech brain co) take d as they find them
SR 2
d need not predict the precise way in which the injury was caused, so long as injury of the same type was foreseeable (Hughes v lord advocate)
