The tortuous definition of negligence gives us ample grounds and provisions to work on and this wrong in civil nature covers extensively large scopes before the courts of the UK herein. Although it is generally regarded by the public at large that the Tort Law in the spectrum of negligence covers tortuous injury in the nature of mental and physical, owing to the general public, negligence covers private wrong along with public wrong. Negligence does not only cover public and private wrong in the physical nature but it also adjudicates wrongs which are of mental in nature. As it has been defined by Winfield,
“Tortuous liability arises from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by law; this duty is towards persons generally and its breach is redressible by an action for unliquidated damages.” If you are struggling with understanding all these intricacies, seeking a law dissertation help provide the most necessary guidance and clarity in place to navigate through this complex terrain.
The English Tort Law certifies the a tortuous negligence as when there exists a certain degree of duty of care, owed by one person to another, the breach of such duty of care by the person who owed it to the other person, in consequence of which, the other party suffers injury or loss in terms of property. Thus, for the purpose of negligence to take place two persons shall have such relationship that (i) one party extensively owe a duty of care towards the other party (ii) A violation towards duty of care (iii) The harm suffered by the other party and the breach of duty of care must have a strong proof of causation.
Herein, we shall discuss the legal implications of mental injury in the tort law of negligence and how mental injury will be applicable in the abovementioned problem concerning
In reference to the abovementioned given case problem, Rockets Ltd. herein shall be held liable for the mental injury under the act of negligence. However, such mental injury shall not form negligence in all the circumstances as given in the case problem. Thus, for the purpose of better clarity to the given case problem, we shall discuss the evaluation of mental injury or nervous shock as negligence with reference to case laws.
Nervous shock or mental injury caused by an act of breach of duty of care by one party shall give rise to the tort of negligence under the English Tort Law. Lord Keith and Lord Oliver in the case of Alcock v chief constable of south Yorkshire, shared their view in using the term ‘nervous shock’ as “misleading” and “inaccurate”; however, in general term of negligence, the term nervous shock has an extensive use.
Due to the un-codified nature of the Tort Law, there is no particular provision which shall cover the mental injury in relation to negligence. However, several precedents have evaluated the history of mental injury in respect to negligence. The elements regarding negligence in terms of mental injury are similar to the elements to the general negligence. However, in case of mental injury there exists another element where it should be proved that the mental shock received by the petitioner is not too remote to be traced from the actual breach of duty of care herein.
In the year of 1861, the case of Lynch v. Knight, first recognised the existence of mental injury in form of negligence and commented on the importance of it. In this case, mental injury in form of negligence tort only formed a part of obiter dicta. However, with time, the importance of mental injury or nervous shock resulting from an act of negligence held a strong base in the case Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, where the Privy Council stressed on the point of foreseeability in case of mental injury. However, eventually, more liberal views regarding mental injury as a consequence of negligence was followed from the case of Dulieu v. White & Sonsand Donoghue v. Stevenson.
However, after the broad and arbitrary use of the Donogheu v. Stevenson in respect of the neighbor principle and the principle of duty of care, the courts of UK deemed it fit to bring into a test of measurement which shall restrict and measure the negligence in the nature of mental injury and govern them accordingly.
In the case of Caparo v. Dickman, it was held that the defendant did not hold any liability towards the economic loss suffered by the claimant. However, this case gave birth to the Caparo Test which turned out to be an essential precedent in the cases of negligence in nature of mental injury. The Caparo test essentially holds three elements for the purpose of establishing the breach of duty of care (i) Forseeability(ii) proximity and (iii) fairness.
Although the concept of mental injury under the ambit of negligence tort has come a lot far with the help of the Donogheu v. Stevenson principle of duty of care, it has been fairly limited by the test of Caparo v. Dickman, as well. But the test of Caparo has helped in expanding the volume of the mental injury negligence to a great extent and many well established precedents have been set by various courts of England. Thus, in the abovementioned problem, Rockets Ltd. shall be held liable to be prosecuted in the instance of May and Pyrois. However, they will not be held liable in the case of Taylor and Pablo as they were not the close proximity of the event that happened due to the negligent act on the part of Rockets Ltd.
Book
P. H. Winfield; “A Text-Book of the Law of Tort” (1971), 8th ed
Article
Craig Purshouse; “Police Negligence and the Caparo ‘Test’ for Duty of Care” (2018)
CASE LAWS
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