Business & Corporation Law Case Study: Analyzing Negligence & Tort

This case study delves into a scenario where Sam's negligence in refueling aircraft with impure fuel leads to losses for multiple parties. The analysis examines the application of tort law, specifically focusing on negligence, duty of care, and potential defenses like volenti non fit injuria. The study assesses Sam's liability in three distinct situations: the engine failure of White Ltd's aircraft causing damage to the aircraft and a car, the delayed flight of Blue Ltd resulting in passenger loss, and Green Ltd's aircraft swerving off the runway after the pilot ignored warnings. The conclusion differentiates Sam's liability in each scenario based on the presence of a duty of care, direct causation, and the applicability of available defenses, referencing relevant case law such as Re Polemis & Furness Withy & Company Ltd and Wooldridge v Sumner & Anor. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

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Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 0
Business Law Assignment
8/11/2018
Student’s Name

Business Law Assignment 1
Contents
Issue.................................................................................................................................................2
Rules................................................................................................................................................2
Application......................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

Business Law Assignment 2
Issue
In the given case, three of the plaintiffs are there who have suffered from direct or
indirect loss due to the negligence of Sam. The issue is to check that whether the defendant i.e.
Sam is responsible for such loss or not?
Rules
Tort is a kind of Common Law (Legal Information Institute, 2018). The lead concept of this
law is that if a person owns a duty of care towards other and fails to perform the same then such
responsible person will be held liable if due to such failure, another person comes out with
damages. In general, many of the relationships exist there in which a person owns the standard of
care in respect of other. In such a situation it is required that the person who owns such duty
must act like a responsible person. There can be several modes by which a breaches his/her duty
of care. The most common reason and modes of such breach are negligence, nuisance, and
defamation (e-law resources, 2018). Negligence is a situation where the person who owns duty
of care does not behave like a reasonable person and acts carelessly (findlaw, 2018). While
discussing the tort law, this is necessary to mention that in cases related to this law, there must be
a loss to the plaintiff. It was held in the case of Re Polemis & Furness Withy & Company Ltd.
(1921) 3 KB 560 that in order to hold the defendant liable in the case, the loss accrued to the
plaintiff must be the direct result of tort act committed by the defendant.
Loss accrued to the other party can be in form of economic damage, personal injury, or
psychiatric injury (Steele, 2014. P. 333). In many of the cases, it has observed that defendant was

Business Law Assignment 3
not on a guilty part as he has taken all the reasonable steps to stop the danger or accident cause of
that later on loss accrued to the plaintiff. In such kind of situation, the defendant can take help of
defense. Majorly four kinds of defenses are available under Tort Law. The defenses are
mentioned hereunder.
1. Volenti non fit injuria:- Defendant can use this defense in those situations where plaintiff
was aware with the danger and still accepted all the risk voluntarily. In such a situation,
the defendant will not be held liable to pay any damages to the claimant (clatapult, 2018).
It was held in the case of Wooldridge v Sumner & Anor (1963) 2 QB 43 that claimant
must have full knowledge of the involved risk.
2. Contributory negligence
3. Ex turpi causa
4. Exclusion of Liability
This can be mentioned that to be successful in a case under Tor Law, it is required for a
claimant that the following factors must be there:-
1. A duty of care on the part of the defendant.
2. Failure in performing such duty.
3. The claimant must come up with the loss.
4. The defendant must not be eligible for any kind of defense.
Application
In the given case, Sam was a responsible person to refuel aircraft of various companies.
Due to his negligence, one day he has refueled aircraft of three companies with impure fuel.
Because of such refueling, these aircrafts companies came out with losses. In the first case,

Business Law Assignment 4
aircraft of White Ltd took off successfully but later on, the engine of this aircraft has cut off. Due
to such engine failure, the owner of the aircraft i.e. White Ltd. has suffered from a loss of $ 1
million. The lead reason for engine failure of this aircraft was the defective fuel. In addition to
this loss, the aircraft also met an accident with a Mercedes Benz car and therefore the car owner
suffered from a loss of $ 75.000. As per the decision of the case, Re Polemis & Furness Withy &
Company Ltd loss accrued to the car owner was remote and was not directly affected by the act
of Sam and was too remote.
Further, when Sam came to know about the incident happened to the aircraft of White
Ltd. and the reason thereof, he has acted like a responsible person. He has stopped the aircraft of
another company Blue Ltd. by taking off. Although, aircraft has saved from any accident cause
of such precaution marked by Sam, yet one of the passengers of the subjective flight has met a
loss worth $ 25000, as she was not able to go to her destination cause of cancellation of the
flight. It is notable that Sam was not liable to perform any duty of care in respect of passenger.
In the third and last situation, similar to the case of Blue Ltd, Sam has tried to stop the
aircraft of Green Ltd., (the third aircraft owner) but the pilot of this flight has denied stopping the
aircraft and took off the flight off. Later on, this aircraft has swerved across the runway and
suffered from a loss worth $ 200000. In this case, applying Wooldridge v Sumner & Anor, Sam
is eligible to take the defense named Volenti non fit injuria.
Conclusion
In all the three studied situations, the liability of Sam is different. In the case of White
Ltd, Sam will be liable to pay the damages unto the amount of loss i.e. $ 1 million to the White
Ltd. Further, he will not be responsible to pay any damages to Car owner as the loss accrued to

Business Law Assignment 5
Ms. Susan Swift (Car Owner) as this loss was not a direct result of Impure Fuel. In the second
case, Sam will not pay any damages to the passenger because there was no duty of care in the
account of Sam for the third party i.e. passenger.
At lastly in the third situation, although Sam owned a duty of care to Green Ltd. and the
loss accrued was a direct result of the act of Sam, however Sam has given the required warning
the pilot and therefore can take the defence of Volenti non fit injuria and will not be liable to for
any damages.

Business Law Assignment 6
References
Clatapult. (2018). General Defences in Tort: Volenti Non Fit Injuria. Retrieved from:
https://www.clatapult.com/general-defences-in-tort-volenti-non-fit-injuria/
e-law resources. (2018). Negligence - duty of care. Retrieved from: http://e-
lawresources.co.uk/Tort-law.php
Findlaw. 2018. Negligence and the 'Reasonable Person'. Retrieved from:
https://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/standards-of-care-and-the-reasonable-
person.html
Legal Information Institute. (2018). Tort. Retrieved from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/tort
Re Polemis & Furness Withy & Company Ltd. (1921) 3 KB 560
Steele, J. (2014). Tort Law: Text, Cases, and Materials, Oxford University Press.
Wooldridge v Sumner & Anor (1963) 2 QB 43