Tort Law Flashcards

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0
Q

What’s the term for a person who commits a tort?

A

Tortfeasor.

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1
Q

What is a tort?

A

A breach of duty fixed by law, redressible by compensation.

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2
Q

What is the purpose of tort damages?

A

To cover the loss adequately so it’s like the tort had never been committed.

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3
Q

What are the time limits for claiming damages?

A

3 years for personal injury, 6 years for app other torts. Equitable remedies have no strict limits but delay defeats equity.

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4
Q

What is defamation?

A

An untrue statement which is communicated or published and which damages the claimant’s reputation.

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5
Q

What does the Defamation Act 2013 state?

A

A statement is not defamatory unless it caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the claimant’s reputation. In the case of trading businesses, this must include serious financial loss.

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6
Q

What is slander?

A

A spoken act or a gesture that either incurs financial loss on part of the claimant or that states/implies that they committed a criminal offence.

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7
Q

What is libel? Suggest 3 case examples.

A

Libel is a written or published defamation, typically printed word. It is actionable per se in that no damage must be proved. Sheridan v News of the World (2006), McManus v Beckham (2001), McAlpine v Bercow (2013).

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8
Q

What are the 5 main defences for defamation?

A

A) the statement is true, B) that the statement is just one of opinion, C) that it was published as a matter of public interest, D) operators of websites aren’t liable for the websites’ users, E) that the statement was peer-reviewed in a scientific paper/journal.

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9
Q

What are the 3 types of trespass?

A

To goods, to land, to person.

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10
Q

What is trespass to goods? Give a case example.

A

The unlawful, intentional, direct interference with another person’s goods. Kirk v Gregory (1876).

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11
Q

What is trespass to land? What is a case example of this?

A

The unlawful interference with another person’s land. Davis v Bennison (1927).

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12
Q

What is the Civil Aviation Act 1982?

A

It is an exception to the rule regarding trespass to land that states that a person’s land is their land “all the way up to heaven and down to hell”. It permits planes passing over houses.

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13
Q

What are the main types of trespass to person?

A

Assault, battery and false imprisonment.

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14
Q

What constitutes tortious assault? What is an example case?

A

A perceived threat of violence to a person. Read v Coker (1853)

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15
Q

What constitutes battery? Give a case example.

A

The direct intention of force to another person without their consent. Nash v Sheen (1953)

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16
Q

What constitutes false imprisonment? Give a case example.

A

The unlawful prevention of another from exercising their freedom of movement. Not necessarily wrongful arrest. Sayers v Urban District Council (1958).

17
Q

What 3 things must be proven to establish negligence?

A

That the defendant owed a duty of care, that this was breached and that it caused harm, injury or damage to the claimant.

18
Q

Which is the main case associated with negligence?

A

Donoghue v Stevenson (1932)

19
Q

What is the neighbour principle?

A

It says you must take reasonable care to avoid harming people near to you (neighbours) in a way that is foreseeable.

20
Q

What are the 3 things courts look for to establish a duty of care?

A

A statutory duty, a common law duty, the Caparo 3 stage test.

21
Q

What are the 3 elements of the Caparo 3 stage test? What case does it come from?

A

Foreseeability, proximity and reasonableness. Caparo Industry plc v Dickman (1990).

22
Q

What is foreseeability? What case relates to this?

A

Was the harm caused foreseeable given the circumstances? Dorset Yacht Co v Home Office (1970)

23
Q

What is proximity? What case is relevant?

A

Was the relationship between the claimant and defendant proximate? Bourhill v Young (1943).

24
Q

What does the Caparo test mean by just and reasonable? What cases link to this?

A

Is it reasonable to impose a duty of care given the circumstances? Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire (1989), Leach v Chief Constable of Gloucester (1998)

25
Q

What is a breach (of duty of care)?

A

Not doing what a reasonable man would, or doing what a reasonable man wouldn’t.

26
Q

What 2 key cases relate to breach of duty of care?

A

Chittock v Woodbridge School (2002), Bogle v McDonalds (2002)

27
Q

What happens in the Caparo test when the harm isn’t foreseeable? What case backs this up?

A

No negligence can be established if the harm isn’t foreseeable. Roe v Minister of Health (1954)

28
Q

What are the 7 main factors in determining whether or not a duty of care has been breached?

A

Magnitude of harm, practicality of precautions, social utility of defendant’s action, inexperience, special characteristics of the claimant or of the defendant, common practice.

29
Q

What case relates to the practicality of precautions in establishing breach?

A

Bolton v Stone (1951)

30
Q

What case relates to social utility of the defendant regarding breach?

A

Watt v Hertfordshire County Council (1954)

31
Q

What case regarding breach focuses on inexperience?

A

Nettleship v Weston (1971)

32
Q

What case relates to common practice in establishing breach?

A

Wilson v Governers of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School Carlton (1997)

33
Q

What case relates to the characteristics of the claimant in establishing breach?

A

Paris v Stepney Borough Council (1950)

34
Q

What case relates to special characteristics of the defendant, regarding breach?

A

Mansfield v Weetabix (1997)

35
Q

When a duty of care is established, what standard of care is required? What case relates to this?

A

The defendant must show the degree of competence expected of an ordinary professional person. Bolam v Friern Barnet Hospital Management Committee (1957)

36
Q

What is the ‘but for’ test? What 2 cases are relevant to it?

A

The notion that the claimant wouldn’t have incurred the damage ‘but for’ the defendant’s negligence. Barnett v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee (1969), McWilliams v Arrol (1962).

37
Q

What is the rule with causation and remoteness in establishing negligence? What 2 cases are relevant?

A

The claimant’s loss can’t be too remote - “reasonably foreseeable”. Hughes v Lord Advocate (1963), The Wagon Mound (1961)

38
Q

What is a break in the chain of causation known as (the Latin), what case is relevant to this concept?

A

Novus Actus Interveniens, Knightly v Johns (1981)

39
Q

What is the egg-shell skull rule? What case is relevant here?

A

Once the defendant is proved to be liable, they are liable for all the damages incurred by principle. Smith v Leech Brain & Co (1962)