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PVL3703 EXAM PACK 2023.
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- PVL3703 EXAM PACK
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- University Of South Africa
PVL3703 EXAM PACK 2023.
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Stuvia.com - The study-notes marketplacePVL3703 EXAM
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PVL 3703 – LAW OF DELICT
MAY/JUNE 2022
EXAMINATION
QUESTION 1
John works in the control tower at the Take flight 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 ive the
necessary instructions to departing and arriving aircraft. A catastrophic airplane
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)
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Conduct is defined as a voluntary human act or omission. “Voluntary” means that the
person must be able to control his muscular movements by means of his will. The act
of the wrongdoer must be voluntary to give rise to delictual liability. Conditions that
may cause a person to act involuntarily as they render him incapable of controlling his
bodily movements: absolute compulsion (vis absoluta), sleep, unconsciousness,
fainting fit, epileptic fit, serious intoxication, blackout, reflex movements, strong
emotional pressure, mental disease, hypnosis, and a heart attack.
However, John had been receiving medical treatment for a diagnosed illness but failed
to take his prescribed medication on that particular occasion. He therefore intentionally
placed himself in a mechanical state (actio libera in causa). Actio libera in causa:
Defence of automatism won’t succeed if defendant intentionally created the situation
in which he acts involuntarily in order to harm another. The defendant will be held liable
for his culpable conduct in creating the state of automatism which resulted in damage
to the plaintiff.
John was negligent regarding his automatic “conduct.” Where the reasonable man
would’ve foreseen the possibility of causing harm while in a state of automatism, e.g.
in Victor case, X was convicted of negligent driving despite causing the accident during
an epileptic fit, as he’d been suffering fits for 13 years and the reasonable man
would’ve foreseen the possibility of causing harm while in a state of automatism. In
this case, John knew he may have a blackout if his medication was taken.
Only the voluntary act closest to the harmful consequence is of relevance, and it’s therefore
unnecessary to consider prior voluntary acts.
John placed himself in a mechanical state by not taking his medication Thus, John was
probably negligent, or could even have had intention in the form of dolus eventualis.
QUESTION 2
At the Shop-Till-You-Drop Shopping Mall, hand sanitizer dispensers have been
installed at all the pedestrian entrances. Notices have been placed near the
dispensers, in which customers are urged to sanitize their hands at the dispensers
before entering the mall. At Entrance B, the dispenser has been malfunctioning for half
a week. It spills sanitising liquid onto the floor, in such large quantities that the liquid
does not evaporate immediately but forms a small puddle around the base of the
dispenser. Because the lighting at Entrance B is rather on the dim side, the puddle is
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