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The Pros And Cons Of Negligence

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Introduction.

Negligence is a central topic in the vast area of Law- Tort. It is largely due to Negligence being by far most practiced by Tort lawyers with huge number of litigations each year. As per Sir Percy Henry Winfield:
Negligence "is the breach of a legal duty to take care which results in damage, undesired by the Defendant to the Claimant."
In other words, it is a failure to exercise that degree of care, when law requires for the purpose of protection of individuals, their properties and their financial interests. A duty of care is a legal obligation to safeguard individuals who can be considered your neighbours from harm: (in your care, your children, students, employees, etc.). For there to be a successful claim for negligence, …show more content…

Mrs. Donoghue, the Claimant, visited a café where her friend bought her an opaque bottle of ginger beer. The Claimant drank half of the bottle and poured the rest into her glass, and a decomposed snail fell out of the bottle into her glass. The Claimant suffered a severe gastroenteritis. She could not sue the café owner for breach of contract to seek damages because she was not a party to that contract: it was between her friend and the café owner. Alternatively, Mrs. Donoghue sued the manufacturer of the ginger beer who have, through neglect, allowed the snail to get inside the bottle. When the case reached the House of Lords, court held that the manufacturer owed a duty of care to their consumers. Lord Atkin gave narrow ratio reasoning on why the duty of care existed in manufacturer- consumer …show more content…

Mr. Stovin, the Claimant, was knocked off his motorcycle by Mrs. Wise's car, the Defendant, and became injured. The Defendant claimed that the accident occurred because visibility of traffic on the junction was obstructed by a bank of earth with a fence. Thus, she claimed that Norfolk County Council (NCC) failed to maintain the junction in safe to use order, and therefore were liable. In the court of first instance the judge agreed that NCC owed a duty of care to the Claimant and were 30% liable to compensate Mr. Stovin. Mrs. Wise was 70% responsible for compensation to the Defendant. But on appeal to the House of Lords the Defendant NCC were found not liable. Held: the Council were not liable on the basis of pure omission. In a space of twelve years there had only been three accidents which was not enough to render that the junction was dangerous. The minimum threshold for junction to be considered dangerous would need to have five accidents in a space of three

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