SECTION B: Liability in Negligence Flashcards
What 4 things needs to be shown in order for someone to be considered negligent?
1) The defendant owed a duty of care
2) The defendant breached that duty of care
3) The claimant suffered damage as a result of the breach via causation
4) The damage suffered was not too remote
What is negligence? (straight definition)
A tort or civil wrong
What is negligence according to a CASE?
Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks
Negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable person would do, or an ac which a reasonable person wouldn’t do.
What is a duty of care?
There is an obligation upon the defendant to take proper care to avoid causing injury to the claimant.
What is the neighbour principle + relevant CASE that helped formed it?
A single test to decide when a person owed a duty of care to another.
DONOHUGE V STEVENSON - Lord Atkin ‘You must take reasonable care to avoid acts / omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. Who is my neighbour in tort law? Persons who are very close and directly affected by my acts’
What does the Caparo case define a duty of care as? List the three tests.
Caparo says for someone to have a duty of care, they must three tests:
1) have a reasonable foresight of harm,
2) a sufficient proximity of relationship and
3) was it fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty.
What is Test 1 and the relevant CASE?
(HINT: Outside of London and starts with K, ambulance
Test One is Foreseeability
- It’s an objective test on what would the reasonable person would do.
KENT V Griffiths - Court decided it was foreseeable that an injured person waiting for may have more severe injuries due to a time delay. Claimant won as there’s a duty of care owed by the emergency services.
What is Test 2 and the relevant CASES?
(HINT: B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ vsopposite of old, McLoughin
Test 2 is Proximity
- It means how close the claimant and defendant are either by space, time or relationship.
- Usually, the proximity test is met as the claiment is usually part of the accident, so they would be there. However, an equivalent is a person who learns about this accident afterwards and has a psychiatric injury as they’re ‘close’ to the victim via a relationship.
BOURHILL v YOUNG - Claimant wasn’t owed a duty of care as they were in a safe place and weren’t there at the time of the accident, so there was no proximity in terms of space. It was not foreseeable that the accident would have cause C=the claimant a miscarriage, so therefore C lost. (first point)
McLoughlin v O’Brien - Although C wasn’t present at the accident, seeing her injured husband and family which was caused by D would foreseeably cause some level of psychiatric pain. The proximity of the relationship was the deciding factor in establishing duty of care so C won.
What is Test 3 and the relevant CASE?
HINT : Yorkshire ripper, hill
Test 3 - Reasonableness
Is it fair, just an reasonable to impose a duty of care?
HILL CASE
No duty of care eas owed to Miss Hill (mother of final Ripper victim) as the police did owe this case as they weren’t to know that Miss Hill would be the final victim, so it wasn’t reasonable. C lost
What is a breach of duty?
A breach of duty is The fault element of negligence. The defedenant must have been careless and done an act or omission that fell below the standard oc care expected of him.
For example, if a defendant is a doctor snd their patient has died, it doesn’t mean they were negligent (unexpected cardiac arrest, for example)
How is the breach of duty applied to learners
The standard of care required is described as a general standard. You do not have to reach the standard of a really good doctor just an average doctor
What does Nettleship V Weston say about general standard of care?
D was a learner driver and crashed, injuring the instructor (C).
Held: D was liable despite her inexperience. The standard of care required of every UK motorist is the same of that of a reasonably competent driver / person.
What two cases showed the evolution of how professionals are charged under neglience? (HINT: 🥣am // Aria M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ )
