Tort glossary Flashcards
(14 cards)
Employers’ primary liability
where an employee sues their employer for breaching their duty of care that they owed the employee
vicarious liability
where the claimant sues an employer (not necessarily their employer) for a tort committed by one of the employers’ employees. The employer is held vicariously liable for the employee’s tort.
strict liability
liability without fault
a tort will have been committed in the ‘course of employment’ if there is a
sufficiently close connection between the employee’s tort and the role he/she is employed to do
crushing liability
imposing damages out of proportion to the negligent conduct
primary victim
someone who suffers psychiatric harm as a result of reasonable fear for their own physical safety (objective test)
actual victim
someone directly involved in the incident who suffered physical harm (and possibly also psychiatric harm)
pure economic loss
financial loss stemming from the harm caused by the negligent act/omission
private nuisance
any continuous activity or state of affairs causing a substantial and unreasonable interference with a claimant’s land or their use or enjoyment of that land
duty to abate
subject to the means of the occupier, the court will consider what steps are fair, just and reasonable to expect the defendant to take considering the resources available to both the defendant and the claimant (and must consider the purpose/demands of the funds of public authority defendants)
sensible personal discomfort (SPD)
something which damages the amenity (enjoyment) value of the property as opposed to its physical value
Any SPD must be more than…
fanciful and materially interfere with ordinary human comfort
Product (under CPA)
all goods, including something which is a component or raw material in something else
Defect (under CPA)
the safety of the product is not such as persons generally are entitled to expect
