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negligence

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:37 2006

Negligence occupies a prominent place in modern tort law. This was not always the case: until the early 20th century, while there was a well-developed law of Trespass, a person who had suffered loss or damage indirectly was left to persue a residual ActionOnTheCase, or `action in case'. There were few unifying features of such actions, so it was difficult to advise the wronged party even whether he had a cause of action or not. Various attempts were made by the courts to make some order out of the morass of cases, but the most celebrated, and influential, was Lord Atkins' speech in DonoghueVStevenson1932. In this case, he expounded the `neighbour principle': that a man has a `duty of care' to those people whom it is reasonably forseeable that his actions will affect. If he fails adequately to discharge that duty, then he will be liable for any adverse consequences that flow from his failure.

This judgement did not immediately catch the attention of other judges; it took about a decade before the `neighbour principle' became entrenched in judicial thinking. When it did, the law of negligence largely assumed the form it has today. In brief, to sustain a claim in negligence, the claimant must show that

• he was owed a DutyOfCare by the defendant, and
• the the defendent was in BreachOfTheDutyOfCare, and
• the breach was the cause of the cause of the the defendant's loss or injury (see CausationInNegligence).

In response the defendant might be able to muster one of the general DefencesToAnActionInTort, or rely on a defence specific to negligence (e.g, ContributoryNegligence).

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