Tort Negligence: Failure To Exercise Reasonable Care

1751 Words4 Pages

Negligence

I. Tort of Negligence

Negligence is the scope of carelessness that a defendant can inflict upon a plaintiff that results in injury and loss. Negligence can be defined as a ‘failure to exercise reasonable care’.

II. Elements of Tort Negligence

In order for negligence to be proved, there are elements that need to be met. Firstly the defendant must have owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. There must also be a breach of this duty. In addition to this, the injury that the defendant had caused must have been from the breach of the duty. The reasonable foreseeability of the injury must not be too remote.

III. Requirements of the plaintiff

There are certain components that BS Freighters Pty Ltd (‘BSF’) must prove in order to …show more content…

BSF can hold WW liable for negligence due to the reason that they suffered under their actions. It had been explained that the pipe that was blocked and caused the sewerage to enter the premises, had previously also been blocked the same way. Had WW taken care of this situation to avoid a future occurrence again, this breach of duty could have been avoided. The breach occurred when WW failed to check their overflow relief gully asset. They owed BSF a duty of care to ensure that the pipes were operating well at all times to avoid something like this from …show more content…

The elements that the courts consider firstly are reasonable foreseeability. The defendant’s actions must not be that of a reasonable person, as a reasonable person would foresee any potential harm that could occur. If the failed actions of the defendant were reasonable foreseeable, the defendant would be held liable for negligence. In regards to the case, since the same pipe was blocked before, WW could have potentially done something about this issue. Also, regular checks of their ORG could have determined whether or not it was operable and certain adjustments could have been made before the sewerage could have leaked into the company. Another element that the court considers is Vulnerability. This comprises the vulnerability of the plaintiff and whether or not he was vulnerable in taking action to prevent the sewerage from entering into the building. There are two factors that are also consider along with vulnerability and that is control and reasonable reliance. If BST were reliant on WW’s ORG pipe then it could be determined that they had no input towards what happened. Lastly, knowledge of the possible harm that may occur must be

More about Tort Negligence: Failure To Exercise Reasonable Care

Open Document