Omissions Flashcards
What is an omission?
This is where someone fails to act and it results in liability.
What is an omission?
This is where someone fails to act and it results in liability.
What are contractual duties?
The responsibilities that the parties signing a contract are agreeing to, if they fair to carry them out they are responsible.
Which 2 cases are associated with contractual duties?
R v Pittwood and R v Adomako.
Summarise R v Pittwood.
The defendant was in charge of the railway barriers. He lifted them up to let a horse and cart pass and forgot about the barriers when he went to dinner. This resulted in a train crashing into a horse and cart and killing the driver. Defendant was guilty.
Summarise R v Adomako.
The defendant was the anaesthetist overseeing an eye operation. During the operation, he failed to notice that an oxygen pipe had become disconnected and the patient died due to cardiac arrest. Adomako was found guilty.
What does public duties mean?
Emergency services can be liable by omission if they fail to intervene.
Which case is applied to public duties?
R v Dytham
Summarise the case of R v Dytham.
The defendant was a police officer who witnessed a man being kicked to death, yet took no action to intervene and drove away when the beating was over. He was convicted of the common law offence of misconduct in a public office.
What is acceptance of care?
Accepting the responsibilities to take care of another person to a reasonable standard.
What case is applied to acceptance of care?
Stone and Dobinson
Summarise the Stone and Dobinson case.
Stone and Dobinson accepted the care of Stone’s sister while they were clearly unequipped and incapacitated to do so. As a result of this, they provided such a poor standard of care that Stone’s sister ended up dying while in their care. They were both convicted.
What are examples of duties via relationship?
Parent to child or spouse to spouse.
What is a duty via relationship?
The obligation of one party of a relationship to protect the other from harm.
What case is applied to duties via relationship?
Gibbins and Proctor.
Summarise the Gibbins and Proctor case.
Gibbins’ child was severely neglected by Dobinson out of pure hatred and ended up dying due to malnutrition as a result of Dobinson starving them. They were both convicted.
What does creation of a danger mean as an area of omission?
If a defendant creates a dangerous situation and does not act to alleviate the effects of this danger, they would be liable by omission.
What case is applied to creation of a danger?
R v Miller
Summarise the R v Miller case.
Miller fell asleep while smoking a cigarette, leaving it lit on a mattress. When he woke and saw the fire, he took no action to put it out but went into another room and fell asleep there. He was convicted.
What is omission under statute?
Failure to act under a statute of parliament.
What is an example of omission under statute?
Failure to stop at the scene of an accident under the Road Traffic Act 1988
What is the Good Samaritan Rule and how does it affect omissions?
The Good Samaritan rule offers legal protection to those who provide reasonable assistance to those who they believe to be ill, in peril, harmed or otherwise incapacitated. This does not exist in the uk so it does not affect omissions in any way.
