Negligence (Paper 2)

Question 1

What are the three elements of negligence

Answer 1

Duty of Care, Breach of Duty, Breach must Cause the Damage

Question 2

What is stage 1 of negligence

Answer 2

Defendant must owe the claimant a duty of care

Question 3

This principle was established by this judge in Donoghue v Stevenson

Answer 3

Lord Atkin established the neighbour principle

Question 4

What is meant by the Neighbour Principle

Answer 4

D must take care not to injure their neighbour, and neighbour is anyone ‘closely and directly affected by your actions’

Question 5

What was the decision in Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire

Answer 5

If there is an obvious duty of care, no need for the three stage test in Caparo

Question 6

Situation in which the Caparo test will be used

Answer 6

When the duty of care isn’t obvious, a novel situation

Question 7

3 stage test from Caparo v Dickman

Answer 7

Foreseeability, Proximity, and Reasonableness

Question 8

Osman v UK

Answer 8

Emergency services will owe a duty of care if they make the risk substantially higher

Question 9

Insurance

Answer 9

If D has insurance, such as car insurance, then it is usually fair, just, and reasonable to impose a duty

Question 10

Stage 2 of Negligence

Answer 10

D must have breached their duty of care to C

Question 11

Definition of breach from Alderson B in Blyth v Birmingham Waterworks

Answer 11

Doing something a reasonable man wouldn’t do, or not doing something a reasonable man would do (objective test)

Question 12

D will fall into one of three categories to determine the standard they should have met

Answer 12

Expert/experienced person

Learner/inexperienced person

Child/young person

Question 13

Standard of an expert or someone who possesses a particular skill

Answer 13

The standard of other reasonably competent professionals (Bolam / Bolitho)

Question 14

Standard of someone inexperienced or a learner

Answer 14

Someone experienced and competent (Nettleship v Weston)

Question 15

Standard of children

Answer 15

A reasonable child of a similar age (Mullins v Richards)

Question 16

Risk Factors

Answer 16

Either raise or lower the standard of care required

Question 17

Probability of Harm

Answer 17

Reasonable person does not need to take precautions against very small risks, but does against bigger risks (Bolton v Stone)

Question 18

Seriousness or Magnitude of the Risk

Answer 18

Court needs to consider how serious the injury could potentially be, the bigger the risk of a serious injury, then the more care that needs to be taken (Paris v Stepney Council)

Question 19

Cost and practicality of precautions

Answer 19

If the cost of taking precautions to eliminate the risk is too great, D may not be in breach (Latimer v AEC)

Question 20

Social Utility of the Risk

Answer 20

If there are benefits for society from the risk, there will be no breach (Watt v Hertfordshire Council)

Question 21

Stage 3 of Negligence

Answer 21

The breach of duty must have caused the damage to the claimant

Question 22

Factual Causation

Answer 22

Uses the ‘but for’ test: but for D’s actions or omissions, would the damage have occurred? (Barnett v Chelsea & Kensington Hospital)

Question 23

Legal Causation

Answer 23

Relates to the remoteness of the damage, meaning if the damage was unforeseeable then it may be too remote and D will not be the legal cause (The Wagon Mound No 1)

Question 24

Hughes v Lord Advocate

Answer 24

D need not predict the precise way in which the injury was caused so long as injury of the same type was foreseeable

Question 25

The Thin Skull Rule

Answer 25

D must take his C as he finds them (Smith v Leech Brain Co)