Lecture notes
Negligence notes
Covering some parts of the law of negligence
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If someone suffers psych harm as result of property damage, unproblematic Psych harm following on from other physical damage
Authority - Tier v British Gas
Lady walking down street - sees house of fire
British gas doing work on her house
Suffers psych harm - claimed duty of care
Psych harm and nothing else
Not limited by laws of inertia- e.g. debris can only fly so far from explosion
Possibility of making claims for psych harm has been possible for a while
Dulieu v White (1901) - first case recognized
Horse-drawn carriage crashed into bar - barmaid suffered psych harm
Nervous shock - able to claim tort of negligence
Concerns:
Liability for disproportionate amount of damages
Ultra Morris corporation v Touche (1931)
Concern about liability in indeterminate amount for indeterminate time to
indeterminate class of people
Opening floodgate to claims
Hillsborough disaster - worry that there could be large number of claims from
one-off event
If floodgate of claims for one type of event/claimant, pressure on system
Other claims may not get fair hearing
Concern for fraud
Psych harm is easier to fake than physical harm
Over-deterrence
If liability for psych harm that can be caused by events, may deter D from
putting on these events
Preconditions to whether there should be duty of care owed to psych harm
Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police
Whether C suffers from recognized psych illness
Law Commission looked at liability for psych harm in 1998
Did not think medical knowledge had advanced enough for complete
codification of liability for psych illness to be sensible option
Usually determined by expert evidence
Usually refer to DSM american diagnostic + statistical manual of mental
disorders
Or ICD10 - national statistical classification of mental + behavioural disorders
Classify more than 500? Types of psych injuries
E.g.
, Pathological unresolved mourning - is injury
But severe bereavement reaction - not injury
Mere distress - not injury
Test of reasonable foreseeability
Is it reasonably foreseeable that someone might suffer psych harm due to injury/the fear
of injury to another person
Hambro Construction 1925
Mother saw lorry going to where she left children
Fearing they were killed - didn't see them be hit
Later died partly due to build-up of stress over time
Borrel v Young 1943
C heard collision involving motorcyclist + other vehicle
No connection to person
Suffered psych harm - miscarriage
Not entitled to claim - not reasonably foreseeable someone would
suffer from hearing accident
Depends on whether C is primary/secondary victim
Whether psych harm has arisen in context of work
Test of foreseeability depends on distinction:
Acute psych harm = caused by one-off event
Primary victim
C is directly involved as participant
In danger zone -
Donachie v CC Manchester Police
C is police officer trying to put tracking device under criminal's car
Has to go back many times to fit device as batteries keep failing
Fear for life each time - maybe heart attack?
Employer - failed to provide with him with safe system of work
Young v Charles Church (1997)
C hands colleague scaffolding pole
Colleague touches live electricity wire, electrocuted + dies
Other colleague burnt
C spectator D - caused psych harm
But included in danger zone as sufficiently close
Criticism that this was wrongly interpreted
Fear must be real
Must be objectively in danger zone/reasonably fear you are in danger zone
McFarlane v EE Caledonia [1994] 2 All ER 1
C was in support vessel watching oil rig on fire
Court didn't accept he was actually in fear
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