Essay
Essay on civil liability
- Module
- Civil liability
- Institution
- AQA
Well written piece of work. Excellent reference and provides all knowledge related to civil liability. Professional standards maintained in structure and writing
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Civil liabilityAssignment 1
Ann Summerscales
D.O.S: 1/4/16
, Introduction
In this document the first topic that will be discussed are breach of duty and the five factors of
breach of duty. The second topic that will be covered is duty of care and what it is. The third topic
that will be discussed is reasonable foreseeable, proximity and just and reasonable. The next criteria
that will be discussed is damage and causation. Another criteria that will be covered is occupier’s
liability. The next topic to be discussed is pure economic loss and what it is. The final criteria to be
discussed is nervous shock and an example of case for this.
Breach of duty
Breach of the duty only happens when the duty has been breached. This is when the defendant had
broken the duty of care by failing to reach by failing to reach the standard of care.
Foreseeability is the leading test that is used to determine proximate cause. The foreseeability test
basically asks whether the person causing the injury should have reasonably foreseen the general
consequences that would result because of his or her conduct. A case relevant to foreseeability is
Hughes v Lord Advocate 1963 this case is about two boys aged 8 and 10 went exploring an
unattended man hole. The man hole had been left by workmen taking a break. It was surrounded by
a tent and some paraffin lamps were left to warn road users of the danger. The boys took a lamp
down the hole. One of them dropped the lamp and an unforeseeable explosion occurred resulting in
extensive burns. The damage was not too remote it was foreseeable that the boys may suffer a burn
from the lamp. The fact that the burn resulted from an unforeseeable explosion did not prevent the
type of damage being foreseeable.
Practicality is making precautions for example providing steel toes shoes for constructions work
because if some heavy object drops on their when proper equipment than the worker won’t be
harmed as much however if a worker is not wearing steel toe shoes and a heavy object lands on his
feet than the company is liable for the workers injury. A case relevant to practicality is Latimer v AEC
ltd 1952 this is about the claimant worked in the defendant's factory and slipped up on the factory
floor. The factory had become flooded due to adverse weather conditions. The defendant's had put
up warning signs mopped up and placed sawdust in the most used places to make it as safe as
possible. The trial judge held that there had been a breach of duty as the defendants should have
closed the factory if it was not safe. However, no argument had been advanced on this. There was
no breach of duty. There was no duty to close the factory. The defendant only had to take
reasonable precautions to minimise the risk which they had done. There was no need to go to great
expense to eliminate any possible risk and thus no obligation to close the factory
Degree of risk is when you think about the consequences for but do minimal to prevent any injuries
from happening for example if you don’t put a barrier where a hole is dug then blind people can’t
see that hole. All the consequences should be considered. A case relevant to degree of risk is Haley v
London Electricity Board 1965 this case is about Some workmen were digging a trench in a
pavement. They went off to lunch. They had nothing to fence of the trench so they left a shovel and
pick at one end and a punner at the other end to warn pedestrians. The claimant, a blind man,
tripped on the punner and fell hitting his head. As a result of the fall he became deaf. The defendant
argued they had done all that was necessary to warn an ordinary person of the danger and there
was no need to take extra precautions for blind persons as it was not foreseeable that a blind person
would be walking unaided down that street. The defendant was in breach of duty. It was foreseeable
that a blind person might walk down the street and they should be given appropriate protection.
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