Tort Law: Understanding Negligence and Its Elements

Running Head: TORT LAW 0
INTRODUCTION TO THE
LEGAL SYSTEMS
AUSTRALIA
[School]
[Course title]

TORT LAW 1
Introduction
Through this case study all the essential information relating the civil law would be
determined along with one of its essential part i.e. Tort law. Basically the negligent part of
the tort law will be covered in this case study along with all the elements needed to satisfy
negligence. All the above would further be proved by taking the help of two articles i.e.”
Dreamworld fatal accident: Faulty water pump, stranded raft caused deaths, pre-inquest
hearing told” as the first article (Silva, 2018). And “Sydney schoolboy in critical condition
after schoolyard game gone wrong” as the second article (Graham, 2018).
Understanding of contract and tort law
The main aim or the purpose of the Civil Laws are to protect the private rights of the
individuals. They basically deals with the behaviour of the humans or the party in
constitution of an injury to the person or its property ( Lockhart,, et al., 2014). They are
different from that of the criminal ones. There are basically four branches of civil laws and
they are Tort law, Contract law, Property law and Family law. Civil laws can be defined as
those rights and responsibilities which can be given to all the persons, entities of the
government or the non-governmental organizations while communicating with each other
( Rankin, & Bamford, 2017).
A tort is a civil wrong in common law jurisdiction that causes a claimant to suffer loss or
damage resulting in legal liability for the individual committing the tortious act. It may
include deliberate emotional distress infliction, negligence, economic losses, privacy invasion
and much more (Harlow, 2005). This case study will deals with the purpose of civil law, tort
of negligence, its elements, relevant case laws and media articles as given in the assignment.
Tort law is considered as a very essential branch of civil laws as it helps in protecting the
rights of the individuals in the case s other than those of the criminal offences (taylorandscott,
2019).
The three basic elements which could establish the ingredients of the tort of negligence are as
follows: First one is duty of care I.e. a defendant owes a duty of care towards the plaintiff.
For example a shopkeeper must be very careful that there must not be any article which could
injure its customers. Second is causation i.e. whether the actions of the defendant has hurt the
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TORT LAW 2
plaintiff. Third one is the damages caused by the breach i.e. the amount of loss whether
monetary or other had been suffered by the plaintiff (NSW, 2018).
The two chosen articles dealing with the conduction of negligence by the parties are as
below,
The list of defendants in Article one are Gold Coast theme parks.
The list of plaintiff in this case scenario are Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke
Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi (Silva, 2018).
The list of defendants in article two are Wattawa Heights School.
The list of plaintiff in this case scenario are Nedal Chemaisse a 10 year old boy and his
parents (Graham, 2018).
In the case scenario of Sydney schoolboy in critical condition after schoolyard game gone
wrong, it was seen that a 10 years old child named Nedal Chemaisse was playing games with
his peers group and suddenly they had a small argument within them and they started fighting
in that while Nedal fell and hurted himself and within no time turned blue (Graham, 2018). In
the inquiry the police had said that the child was suffering from some disease from pre-
existing medical conditions and fall was just accidental, whereas the mother says that the
child was not suffering from any disease (Makela, 2011).
A teacher who saw this incident had come running to the child to help him and in that while
had injected him with a shot of epinephrine. But it had completely failed and then other
treatments were also given to the child before taking him to the children’s hospital. The child
was very critical but in a stable condition. Here the negligence has taken place in the
following form:
The teachers of the school has breached the duty of care as they were not able to take care of
the child or prevent them from fighting. This breach of duty was very clearly seen in the case
of Vaughan v Menlove (1837) 3 Bing NC 467. Here it was noticed that even after a many
warnings given on different events the respondent did not take any protective actions
regarding the protection of his haystack, and then it had finally caught fire due to the poor
ventilation facility and had caused loss to many people and their properties (Graham, 2018).
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