Liability under Tort Law: A Case Study on Negligence and Duty of Care

BUSINESS LAW Assignment
Student Name
[Pick the date]

Issue
The issue in the present case is to ascertain that in which of the cases, the defendant Sam would
be liable for the losses incurred to the likely plaintiffs under the highlights of tort law.
Rule
The tort of negligence would be taken into account when the three central aspects i.e. duty to
care, breach of duty of care and damages are present. Duty to care is the responsibility to care
that the defendant owes to the plaintiff and can easily be found by using neighbour test as used
by honourable judge in Perre v Apand [1999] HCA 36 case (Harvey, 2009). Breach of duty to
care takes place when the defendant acts negligently and does not take requisite provisions
related to fulfilling duty of care. When the necessary precautions are not taken by the defendant,
then the expected foreseeable losses suffered by the plaintiff would be categorised as damages
from the breach of duty of care. If these three aspects are present in any case, then such cases
would be dealt under tort of negligence and the defendant is liable for the incurred losses
suffered (Gibson & Fraser, 2014).
Duty to care and neighbour test
The neighbour test is used in order to ascertain the existence of duty of care on behalf of the
concerned defendant. As per the conditions of this test, the action doer called as defendant is
supposed to take necessary measures before conducting any work or action so that the
foreseeable damages to the neighbour can easily be prevented (Lindgren, 2014). This is because
the action or inaction of the action doer has the capability to result in significant damages. The
judgement in Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] AC 562 at 580 case is the testimony of the above
fact where action doer’s conduct or negligence in the conduct can result considerable losses on
the part of plaintiffs (Davenport & Parker, 2014).
Negligence and breach of duty to care
Defendant must provide appropriate level of care to the plaintiff in regards to prohibit the losses
that can be caused if the duty of care is violated. Breach of duty of care would be present when
the defendant who is supposed to take necessary actions and safety precaution behaves
negligently and does not pay attention towards the possible damages that can be incurred because
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