Case Study: Analyzing Negligence Under Tort Law in Australia

This case study provides an overview of civil law, with a specific focus on tort law and negligence within the Australian legal system. It examines the essential elements required to establish negligence, including duty of care, causation, and damages, supported by references to media articles detailing real-world cases. The analysis includes a discussion of the 'Sydney schoolboy' incident, evaluating whether the teachers breached their duty of care and if their actions led to the child's injury. Relevant case laws, such as Vaughan v Menlove and Wagon Mound no 1, are used to illustrate key principles of negligence. The study concludes that all three elements of negligence were met in the chosen case scenario, highlighting the importance of vigilance and care to prevent harm.

Running Head: TORT LAW 0
[School]
[Course title]
Introduction to the Legal Systems
AUSTRALIA

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
1

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).
2

TORT LAW 3
Causation the second element of the conduction of the tortious negligence. In this case
scenario it was seen that the carelessness of the teachers had led to the serious fight amongst
the children and a child had also got seriously injured who was still very critical and the
similar types of facts were also seen in the case of Barnett v Chelsea & Kensington Hospital
[1969] 1 QB 428. Where it was seen that a patient had visited a hospital with very serious
stomach ache and other problems but the doctor denied to check him as it was getting late in
the night he had sent him back saying that come back in the morning. But till the next day he
got very serious and became unstable (Cane, 2017).
The 10 year old little kid had got very serious and was taken to the hospital but was still
could not be brought to the stable condition. Thus the remoteness of the damage caused is the
third and the last but most essential element of negligence. The similar facts of tortious
negligence was seen in the case of Wagon Mound no 1 [1961] AC 388. Here it was seen that
due to the default of a single person the entire vessel had caught fire and all this had occurred
due to leakage of dangerous liquid in it. This had caused a lot of damage to a number of
people and their property (Barker, & Cane, 2012).
Conclusion
Thus from the above report it can be concluded that all the three elements of negligence that
duty of care, causation as well as the remoteness of the damage so caused was properly
meeting all the criteria of the chosen case scenario of a 10 years old child who got seriously
injured while playing in the school. It is very clear that the teachers must be very alert and
prevent any such occurrence of the fights which may cause serious damages to the lives of
the children studying within. Thus all the essential information relating the civil law is clearly
determined along with one of its essential part i.e. Tort law and all the essential elements of
negligence for supporting the tort law is also attained using an article.
3

TORT LAW 4
Bibliography
Lockhart,, C., Hemming, , A. & Penovic, T., 2014. Civil Procedure in Australia.
s.l.:LexisNexis Butterworth.
Rankin, , M. J. & Bamford, D., 2017. Principles of Civil Litigation. 3rd ed. s.l.:Thomson
Reuters (Professional) Australia Pty Limited.
Barker, , K. & Cane, P., 2012. The Law of Torts in Australia. 5th ed. s.l.:Oxford University
Press.
Cane, P., 2017. Key Ideas in Tort Law. s.l.:Bloomsbury Publishing.
Graham, B., 2018. Sydney schoolboy in critical condition after schoolyard game gone wrong.
[Online]
Available at: https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/sydney-schoolboy-in-critical-
condition-after-schoolyard-bashing/news-story/86132f635664448196cbc05515c537c9
[Accessed 22 09 2019].
Harlow, C., 2005. Understanding Tort Law. s.l.:Sweet & Maxwell.
Makela, M., 2011. Negligence in Queensland. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gotocourt.com.au/personal-injury/qld/negligence/
[Accessed 22 09 2019].
NSW, 2018. The Law of Negligence. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/negligence-and-risk-qld/
[Accessed 22 09 2019].
Silva, K., 2018. Dreamworld fatal accident: Faulty water pump, stranded raft caused deaths,
pre-inquest hearing told. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-03/dreamworld-fatal-accident-ride-pre-
inquest-hearing-brisbane/9612462
[Accessed 22 09 2019].
taylorandscott, 2019. The Four Elements that Make up a Negligence Claim. [Online]
Available at: https://www.taylorandscott.com.au/compensation-lawyers/the-four-elements-
4

TORT LAW 5
that-make-up-a-negligence-claim/
[Accessed 22 09 2019].
5