Tort Law Flashcards
What is a tort?
A tort is a civil wrong which entitles the injured party to a remedy
What is the purpose of damages in tort?
To restore victims to position before tort
What is negligence
The breach of a legal duty of care causing some recoverable damage to the claimant
Car crash example
man stopped at traffic light and a car ran into him from behind, the other driver’s negligence caused damage and he owed a duty of care to others on the road which he was in breach of by failing to apply brakes
Identifiers of negligence
- That there was a duty of care
- Duty of care has been breached
- Breach caused damage
- Damage isn’t too remote
If you meet all these you can qualify for negligence in tort
What is the objective of negligence?
-compensating victims of injury and distributing payment from claimant who sustained injury to defendant who caused it (corrective justice)
What doesn’t negligence do?
it doesn’t allocate blame, promote morality, vindicate rights or punish wrongdoers
What is insurance about?
It is about purchasing a financial product that will payout when a particular thing happens
What is first party insurance?
Insure yourself against suffering/harm (singer insuring voice)
What is third party insurance?
Provides insurance to you in case you must pay compensation a 3rd who you injure (car insurance)
How does insurance spread loss?
without it loss would be concentrated on victims but the tort of negligence shifts loss from claimant to defendant
Types of loss (damage)
physical injury, psychiatric injury, damage to property, consequential economic loss, pure economic loss, distress, physical harm (suffering some damage to the body)
How are damages for physical injury calculated?
if there is pain and suffering, loss of amenity, consequential economic loss. It aims to cover actual/prospective bodily hurt
What is loss of amenity?
Damages awarded for loss of ability to enjoy life
How are damages for psychiatric injury calculated?
calculated by pain/suffering, loss of amenity and has to go beyond distress
What are aggravated damages?
compensating victims for mental distress where injury has been caused/increased by how defendant committed the wrong or their conduct afterward
What are Exemplary damages?
oppressive/unconstitutional conduct by gov servants or conduct aimed at making profit in excess of compensation
What are death claims?
When a person dies as a result of negligence of the defendant
What happens when death claims are made?
3rd party affected by claims can bring claims or cause of action that would have happened if claimant were aliv would continue
How do you qualify to make a death claim?
Must fall within list of dependants and must prove their financial dependent on the deceased and that the deceases would have sued for their injury if they were alive
Who can qualify for bereavement damages?
don’t need proof of dependency but can only be claimed by spouse, civil partner or parents of unmarried minor
What is vicarious liability?
liability of employer for tort of employee committed in the cause of employment e.g bus driver in an accident his company will be liable/pay compensation
What doesn’t vicarious liability cover?
- doesn’t cover those who are truly employed
- employer won’t be liable if the tort isn’t related to company (uni isn’t responsible if professor is in car accident)
what is contributory negligence? What does it do?
allowed claimant to have a fault that has a part to play in their injury (partially contribute) and damages will be reduced according to magnitude of their fault
What is contribution?
Two or more parties responsible in negligence for the same damage
Requesting contribution from more than one party for negligence
a claimant can choose to sue one defendant and request contribution from the other if they can prove their carelessness had a role in the carelessness of the the other defendant.
What is a duty of care?
A legal obligation placed on a person to take reasonable care when performing an activity
What makes someone liable to a claimant (tort of negligence)?
You can only be liable to a claimant after it has been proved that there was a duty of care they owed to the claimant
Lord Atkin’s Neighbour Principle (neighbour test)
-used to demonstrate one’s duty of care to the other party
‘persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question’
Two step test created in Anns v Merton (1978) (negligence)
- Was there a close relationship between the parties
- If there was was there was a presumed duty of care unless defendant could come up with defense
Caparo’s three stage test
used in novel duty cases as method of constructing legal analysis
(a) damage must be reasonably foreseeable as a result of the defendant’s conduct, (b) the parties must be in a relationship of proximity or neighbourhood, and (c) it must be fair, just and reasonable to impose liability on the defendant
Two stage approach to Duty of Care (Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire
- look to see whether there is previously decided legal principle (case/common law) which determine whether duty of care is owed in situations like current case
- if there is proof of duty of care the courts will find closest analogies in existing law
Principles drawn from precedents (no need for stage two from Robinson case required)
- Damage (physical injury, property damage)
- Damage caused by omissions
- Injuries caused by shock
- Public authorities
- Pure economic loss
Duty of care for physical acts
defendant owes a duty of care to prevent all foreseeable injury caused by his/her acts
Duty of care for ‘failure to act or confer a benefit’ (omission)
-no liability resulting from omission unless there is a relationship of control between defendant and a third party
Duty of care for pure economic loss
no liability unless defendant has assumed responsibility to claimant and the claimant has reasonably relied upon the assumption of responsibility
What is a novel duty case?
Cases where the question of whether a duty of care arises has not previously been decided
Established duty of care scenarios
employer/employee, driver/others on the road, doctor/patient, solicitor/client, manufacturer/consumer, parent/guardian, teacher/child
Two main questions to judge a breach of duty case
- What is the minimum that should be expected/should have happened?
- What did happen?
What happens if defendant did more than the minimum level of competence expected?
There is no breach and claimant cannot get compensation for damages
What is ‘res ipsa loquiter’
-the negligence speaks for itself
if something falls on your head it is reasonable to assume it was because of someone else’s negligence
What does it say in civil evidence act section 11
Allows us to rely on criminal convictions as evidence of breach of duty
How do we identify whether the defendant owes a duty of care to the claimant?
We must ask ourselves what a ‘reasonable person’ would do
What standard do we hold learner drivers to?
- According to ‘reasonable man’ principle the learner driver is measured objectively to the care expected of an experienced/skilled river
- According to Lord Denning; the learner driver’s ‘incompetent best is not enough’
- inexperience/inability for adults does not dispute reasonability
What standard of care do we hold children to?
Children cannot meet standards expected of a ‘reasonable adult’
- there is no defence of childhood
- we hold them to standard of reasonable child their own age
What happens if a child is driving? Are they judged to standard of skilled driver or someone their own age?
-when a child engages in an adult activity (driving motor vehicle) they are held to the same standard as a reasonable adult because they are putting people at risk
What is an adult activity?
- ‘an activity which is normally undertaken only by adults and for which qualifications are required’
- driving a motor-vehicle is the only well established adult activity
When might a parent be liable for acts of their children?
for failing to exercise proper supervision and control over the child
-parents are expected to meet standards of reasonable parents
when is incapacity labelled as a breach of duty?
if you knew about a pre-exisiting incapacity that makes it unsafe for you to do something and you still negligently do it (blind person driving)
When are you not liable for your incapacity? (breach of duty)
- if the action is involuntary–> you dont have physical control of what you’re doing and so won’t be liable if you cause harm to somebody else (sleepwalking)
- mental disorders that dont involve involuntary action are not considered
Should we expect experts of a certain skill to conform to a higher standard of care than others?
We judge them by the standard of an ordinary person who expresses expertise in that profession/who has that skill
How do you decide what a reasonable skilled person would do?
- expert evidence
- if you’re a doctor a body of medical professionals should agree with your decision to show you acted at least according to what others in your profession would do
What is the Bolam test?
-it shows you what standard of care you should expect from a ‘skilled’ professional based on their expressed competence
Applying Bolam to omissions cases
-if you can prove a competent professional in your field would have refrained from treating patient in the same way you did there will not be liability
Bolam applies to non-medical skills
- applies generally to professionals
- ski instructors judged by standard of ski instructors
- barristers judged by standard of barristers
How do you calculate the standard of care?
- foreseeability, risk, practicality of precautions and social cost
- as foreseeability and risk increase the standard increases
- as practicality and risk increase standard lowers
When do we expect reasonable person to take precautions against risks?
you can only be expected to take care if you know that there is a particular risk which can only happen if you can foresee that risk or know it might happen
- if its completely unforeseeable the reasonable person will not take care against the risk
- if cost of precautions is more than the risk then no action should reasonably be taken
The greater the likelihood of harm…
the greater the care expected