Aspects of Contract and Negligence for
Business
LECTURE SLIDES
Duty of care
Learning outcome
Understand principles of liability in negligence in business activities
Aim of the session
To review how negligence differs in tort and contract law with emphasis on duty of care
TOPIC 7
UNIT 5: Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business
Negligence
Negligence is now the most significant tort
Whereas other torts protect particular interests (for example, defamation protects people’s reputation), negligence may be invoked in relation to a wide variety of interests:
Protection against personal injury TOPIC 7
Protection against damage to property
Protection against economic losses in some circumstances UNIT 5: Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business
Negligence claims
To make a successful claim for negligence, the injured party must be able establish:
That the defendant owed the claimant a duty to take care or protect him or her from the kind of harm suffered
That the defendant was in breach of that duty
That the defendant’s breach of duty was found to be the cause of the claimant’s injury, which was not too remote
TOPIC 7
UNIT 5: Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business
Duty of care
A breach in duty of care may lead to claims of negligence
Duty of care
One of the most difficult aspects of negligence is establishing whether a duty of care is owed by the defendant to the claimant
The key question is should the defendant take care to avoid causing harm to the claimant?
Clearly if no duty of care is owed, then a claim in negligence cannot succeed – the other elements become irrelevant
TOPIC 7
UNIT 5: Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business
Relationships
Duty of care is about relationships: A must be in a required relationship with B, so that, for example,
A has a legal duty to take care of B. This is also known as a proximity.
Sometimes, this is relatively straightforward to establish.
For example, a duty of care is recognised to exist when the claimant/defendant fall into these categories:
Teacher/pupil
Occupier of land/visitor
Doctor/patient
TOPIC 7
UNIT 5: Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business
Neighbour principle
Lord Atkin (in Donoghue v Stevenson [1932]) identified the means of establishing the existence of a
