show no signs that he was drunk. Strict liability plays an important role when it has to do with public safety, unlike the case of Atkinson v. Sir Alfred McAlpine 1974, whereby the D was convicted of not informing his workers that they were exposed to blue asbestos in their working environment. The statues states that the presumption of mens rea will be kept aside unless it shows that the creation of strict liability will be effective to encourage high level of due diligence and encourage high degree of vigilance to prevent the act from occurring in the future, unlike the case of (Alphacell v Woodward 1972). The court usually take a huge responsibilities when it comes to social concern, as in the case of (Callow v Tillstone 1900) where the D was convicted of selling meat which was unfit for public consumption, despite there was …show more content…
Unlike the case of (Larsonneur 1933) whereby the defendant had gone to Ireland after her permission to be in the UK had expired, she was deported from Ireland and brought back to the UK and she was found guilty of being an alien in the UK under the Aliens Order 1920 despite having no intention to return to the UK, this seems unfair and unjust. It is too easy to obtain conviction as mens rea is not considered as long as the actus reus is being committed. It is not always deterrent because the offence of strict liability is not intentionally, contrary to the case of (R v Storkwain 1986). Though the prescription was forged, the pharmacist was convicted still. In the case of (Callow v Tillstone 1900), people like myself can actually be dissuaded from providing food for public consumption due to possible conviction even if I do everything possible to avoid prohibited offence all because I'm avoiding the imposition of strict
They reasoned that since Barnett didn’t either argue against the dismissal of negligence claim at the time of its dismissal or include the claim in subsequent revisions, she had no support for her claim that the court had erred in dismissing her claim of negligence. The court also ruled that the language of section 3-108(b) of the Tort Immunity Act meant that complete, unconditional immunity was to be offered if supervision was present. As a result of this interpretation, the issue of if the lifeguards had committed willful and wanton misconduct was rendered irrelevant. Since the issues of material fact raised by the appellant weren’t actually issues of material fact, the Supreme Court affirmed the District and Appellate Court’s motion and subsequent affirmation of summary
Axiak v Ingram (2012) 82 NSWLR 36 (Axiak) was extremely pertinent, standing as the “only decision of this court dealing with the construction of the blameless accident provisions of the MACA”. Critically, the case established that ‘non-tortious negligence’ is excluded from the MACA’s definition of “fault” in s3. Such provisions artificially place fault upon the driver in order to secure CTP claims for victims.
On the surface, it seems that determining how much power courts have would be a simple task. However, history has proven this to be false. The courts have been viewed in many different ways through out the history of our country. There are three common views of court power that are important for modern scholars of the court system. Those who believe courts have little power to cause social change are said to adhere to the Constrained Court view. Those who believe courts have a great deal of power to cause social change are said to adhere to the Dynamic Court view. The final, and youngest, take on court power combines aspects of the Constrained and Dynamic views into what I shall call the Condition Dependent Court view of power. This view sees that there are certain conditions which allow the court to cause social change.
When you or your loved one walks into a business or is invited onto private property , you expect to be walking into a safe environment. Business are responsible for taking certain measures to ensure the safety of you and your loved one. If you become injured because of a property owner 's failure to keep their property free from hazards, hidden or known, you may have a legal claim against the property owner. This is a premise liability case. Below are some frequently asked questions and answers regarding premise liability claims.
In this age of endless lawsuits and litigation from everyone suing everyone else, one must ask the question “where does product liability end and consumer responsibility begin?” This question has been further complicated by occurrences that stretch to the most far-reaching ends of this spectrum, the spectrum ranging from strict product liability of the company to complete consumer responsibility. On the strict product liability of the company side, we have the cigarette industry where the CEOs of the largest cigarette companies denied that their product was liable for the cause of addiction. Almost all consumers know that the ingredient nicotine in cigarettes is addictive, due to extensive scientific testing and reports on this fact. What these CEO’s should have done was admit that they knew nicotine was addictive, and therefore made their product liable so as to give a fair warning to unknowing consumers. On the complete consumer responsibility side, we can examine the lawsuit where a man sued McDonald’s for over a million dollars because he spilled a cup of their coffee on his self and suffered burns. He claimed that McDonald’s was liable because there was not a warning on the lid that stated that the coffee was hot. In my opinion, this lawsuit should have never happened. The consumer is attempting to alleviate all of the responsibility from himself for spilling his coffee and pass it on to the producer of the product. Frivolous lawsuits such as this, as well as companies failing to consider the importance of product liability, have resulted in an increasing annual product liability bill. Last year alone $4 billion was spent on product liability lawsuits and settlements (McAdams, p.636). This staggering number suggests that maybe we need to reform our liability system. Ideally, we as a society would like to reach a happy medium between strict product liability of the company and complete consumer responsibility. If this occurred, lawsuits such as this would no longer drain our legal systems because an understanding would exist that the responsibility rests equally in both parties’ hands. However, that is an ideal situation, which rarely ever occurs in the real world. In the real world, tradeoffs must be made in order to reach equilibrium. These tradeoffs between strict product liability and consumer responsibility will be discussed in light of the situati...
Review the scenario below. Consider the legal principles influencing the likelihood of any successful action against Steve in negligence.
The legislators are there to define the rules, the judiciary to interpret them and the prosecutors are designed to determine when to invoke them. But, as the current law appears to be failing to accurately express society’s changing values and opinions, it seems more than appropriate that judges should be left to exercise their discretion.
‘It would be absurd to turn a blind eye to those who cause harm due to
Society’s change over time, which impacts the change in views and values of its citizens. Law reform is important in helping support legal mechanisms in achieving justice for society by reflecting the core views and values amongst all. R v SW & BW is case that shows the instant and inclusive response to the starvation of a child. This case was able to outline that DOC’s and the child protection authorities had not adequately upheld their role. DOC’s were investigated which was able to efficiently achieve justice for society by allowing individuals to be able to receive the correct treatment.
The Act allows negligence as the sole ground unlike common law which required the claimant to establish ‘fraud’ even if negligence existed. It is believed that the ‘d...
“To what extent is the decision in Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 still important to the duty of care in the law of negligence?” Donoghue v Stevenson saw the establishment of the neighbour principle by Lord Atkin which states that individuals “must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour”. To evaluate whether this principle is still useful in courts in the 21st Century, one would have to look at the modern day cases after the evolution and decide whether the initial idea is still being used or not. In this essay I will analyse the immediate change caused by Donoghue v Stevenson and whether this still affects judicial decisions in the modern day. Donoghue v Stevenson was a case brought to the House of Lords in 1932 regarding the duty of care that was essential from a manufacturer to a consumer.
Mens rea known as the “mental element” of an offence has long been regarded as a crucial factor in criminal law, aiming to ensure that only those who are blameworthy are punished for crimes thus inputting the role of fairness into the criminal law system. H.L.A Hart agreed with this fairness rationale arguing that it would be wrong to convict and punish anyone who had not been given ‘a fair opportunity’ to exercise the capacity for ‘doing what the law requires and abstaining from what it forbids.’ “The general rule is that no crime can be committed unless there is mens rea.” But this is departed from when creating strict liability offences.
INTRODUCTION: Parliament, the supreme law-making body, has unrestricted legislative power, and the laws it passes cannot be set aside by the courts. The role of judges, in relation to laws enacted by Parliament, is to interpret and apply them, rather than to pass judgment on whether they are good or bad laws. However, evidence has shown that they have a tendency to deviate from their ‘real roles’ and instead formulate laws on their own terms. Thus, the real role of a judge in any legal system continues to be a phenomenon questioned by many.
For many years there have been questions circling weather the decision held by the house of Lords in Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC presents the return to Pre-Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 methods applied by the courts in determining and deciding the existence of duty of care in negligence. In this assignment I will investigate cases and the methods of Pre-Donoghue v Stevenson in setting out the duty of care along with the methods set, fixed and established in Donoghue v
The courts of England and Wales acknowledge that the above must be something of value, in order to amount to consideration. A valuable consideration in the perspective of the English La...