PVL3703 PORTFOLIO MEMO - MAY/JUNE 2022 - SEMESTER 1
QUESTION 1
John works in the control tower at the Takeflight Airport. He suffers from a rare disease that causes unexpected blackouts. However, he is on prescription medicine that effectively eliminates the possibility of the blackouts. On one...
question 1 john works in the control tower at the takeflight airport he suffers from a rare disease that causes unexpected blackouts however
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University of South Africa (Unisa)
PVL3703 - Law Of Delict
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QUESTION 1
John works in the control tower at the Takeflight Airport. He suffers
from a rare disease that causes unexpected blackouts. However, he
is on prescription medicine that effectively eliminates the possibility
of the blackouts. On one particular day, he does not take his
medicine. In the control tower, he has a blackout and is unable to
give the necessary instructions to departing and arriving aircraft. A
catastrophic aeroplane accident takes place during his blackout
because no instructions were forthcoming. A potential plaintiff
approaches you for a legal opinion. Write an opinion on the
question whether John’s behaviour qualified as conduct for the
purpose of delictual liability. (10)
Conduct is defined as a voluntary human act or omission. “Voluntary”
means that the person must be able to control his/her muscular
movements by means of his/her will. Body movements need not be willed
to be voluntary, nor do they need to be rational or explicable. The defence
of automatism excludes voluntariness, and this means that the relevant
movements were mechanical and the person could not control them by
his/her will. Factors that can induce a state of automatism include blackout
and epileptic fit.
According the Molefe v Mahaeng, the defendant does not bear the onus
to prove that he was in a stateof so-called sane automatism. The onus is
on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant acted voluntarily. If we apply
these principles to the facts supplied in the question, we can conclude that
X did not in fact act voluntarily when the damage to the car was caused.
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