scholarly journals When are occupiers in breach of their duty of care? The advantages of a systematic test

Legal Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-112
Author(s):  
Marie-Bénédicte Dembour ◽  
Juliet Turner ◽  
Charles Barrow

AbstractSixty years have passed since occupiers in England and Wales were placed under a statutory duty to keep visitors to occupied premises reasonably safe. The legislation, however, did not detail the exact operation of this duty of care. The case law, expected to fill in the gaps, has arguably developed without sufficient consistency and/or predictability. This apparent confusion can be remedied through applying a systematic test to the question of whether a breach of duty has occurred. The test follows the verification that the case falls within the field of occupiers’ liability because of the presence of a danger attributable to the state of the premises. It consists of three consecutive stages which ask: (1) whether the risk of injury was foreseeable; (2) whether the occupier could reasonably have been expected to have addressed this very particular risk; and (3) whether any remedial action the occupier actually took was appropriate.

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Kerri O’Donnell ◽  
Barry Hicks ◽  
John Streeter ◽  
Paul Shantapriyan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the increasing expectation against two concepts, information and process scepticism. In light of the Centro case judgement, directors’ decisions are held to increasing standards of due care and diligence. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper, drawing upon archival material, including statute law, case law, regulatory guidance material and media releases in Australasia. The authors review the statutory duty of care, skill and diligence expected of non-executive directors. Findings – Whether a director has exercised an appropriate level of reasonable care and skill and/or due diligence has been a matter for the courts to decide. Such retrospective analysis leaves directors vulnerable to the uncertainty of whether their individual interpretation of diligence matches up to that of the presiding judge. The authors provide directors with a framework to apply scepticism to information and processes provided by those on whom the directors may rely. Research limitations/implications – Two concepts are identified: reasonable reliance on others and the business judgement rule. The authors present arguments that challenge us to understand reasonable reliance, judgement and actions of directors in light of processing and information scepticism. Practical implications – Directors do have a different role to that of auditors; incorporating scepticism can enable directors to fulfil their responsibility towards shareholders. By applying information and process scepticism, directors of companies can reduce the likelihood and magnitude of litigation costs and out-of-court settlements. Originality/value – This paper provides a framework to apply scepticism to information and processes provided by people on whom the directors may rely.


Author(s):  
Kirsty Horsey ◽  
Erika Rackley

Kidner’s Casebook on Torts provides a comprehensive, portable library of the leading cases in the field. It presents a wide range of carefully edited extracts, which illustrate the essence and reasoning behind each decision made. Concise author commentary focuses the reader on the key elements within the extracts. Statutory materials are also included where they are necessary to understand the subject. The book examines the tort of negligence including chapters on the basic principles of duty of care, omissions and acts of third parties, the liability of public bodies, psychiatric harm, economic loss, breach of duty, causation and remoteness of damage and defences. It goes on to consider three special liability regimes—occupiers’ liability, product liability and breach of statutory duty—before turning to discussion of the personal torts and land torts. It concludes with chapters on vicarious liability and damages.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Sasha Baglay

This article reviews and analyzes recent Canadian jurisprudence on immigration-related torts, situating it in the context of the contrasting logic of immigration and tort law. Immigration law’s focus on the absolute power of the state to control admission directs courts away from the recognition of the duty of care. In contrast, tort law theory does not preclude the possibility of private law duties to non-citizens, especially in light of the absence of other effective remedies to address the power imbalance between the host state and the non-citizen. The article examines how these two narratives were negotiated in cases of alleged negligence in immigration processing. It problematizes certain aspects of the current construction of the duty of care towards non-citizens and offers some suggestions for a more nuanced understanding of the factors considered under the Anns/Cooper test. Dans cet article, l’auteure examine et analyse la jurisprudence canadienne récente des délits civils relatifs à l’immigration en la situant dans le contexte de la logique d’opposition du droit de l’immigration et du droit de la responsabilité civile délictuelle. Le droit de l’immigration, qui est centré sur le pouvoir absolu de l’État de contrôler l’admission d’immigrants, fait oublier aux tribunaux la reconnaissance du devoir de diligence. En revanche, la théorie du droit de la responsabilité civile délictuelle n’écarte pas la possibilité d’obligations de droit privé envers des non-nationaux, surtout en l’absence d’autres recours applicables pour résoudre le déséquilibre de pouvoir entre l’État d’accueil et le non-national. Dans cet article, l’auteure étudie la manière dont ces deux discours ont été conciliés dans des cas de négligence présumée dans le traitement de demandes d’immigration. L’auteure définit le problème que posent certains aspects de l’interprétation actuelle du devoir de diligence envers des non-nationaux et présente quelques idées permettant une compréhension nuancée des facteurs pris en compte dans la cause type Anns/Cooper.


1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 651-656
Author(s):  
Israel Gilead

In a recent article, Prof. Izhak Englard reviewed the salient developments in tort law over the last decade. These developments are:(a) Deciding the question of the internal structure of the Civil Wrongs Ordinance as regards the relationship between the general and the specific torts.(b) Extension of tortious liability for negligence, and the crystallization of the conceptual framework of that tort.(c) Expanding the scope of the tort of breach of a statutory duty by allowing the unimpeded inclusion of statutory duties within the scope of the Civil Wrongs Ordinance.(d) Removal of the umbrella erected by the case law in order to shield the State and its agencies from liability for negligence and the breach of a statutory duty, and the equation of the position of the State to that of other tortfeasors.


Author(s):  
Mark Lunney ◽  
Donal Nolan ◽  
Ken Oliphant

Tort Law: Text and Materials brings together a selection of carefully chosen extracts from cases and materials, with extensive commentary. Each section begins with a clear overview of the law, followed by illustrative extracts from case law and from government reports and scholarly literature, which are supported by explanation and analysis. The authors start by introducing the subject, and then examine intentional interference with the person before moving on to liability for negligence. Their analysis provides an overview of negligence liability in general, and then addresses in turn breach of duty, causation and remoteness, defences to negligence, and specific duty of care issues (psychiatric illness, economic loss, omissions and acts of third parties, and public bodies). In the following chapter, the authors consider the special liability regimes for employers and occupiers, as well as product liability and breach of statutory duty. The focus then switches to nuisance and the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, defamation, and privacy, before turning to vicarious liability, and damages for personal injury and death. Finally, they explore how tort works in practice.


Author(s):  
Kirsty Horsey ◽  
Erika Rackley

Kidner’s Casebook on Torts provides a comprehensive, portable library of the leading cases in the field. It presents a wide range of carefully edited extracts, which illustrate the essence and reasoning behind each decision made. Concise author commentary focuses the reader on the key elements within the extracts. Statutory materials are also included where they are necessary to understand the subject. The book examines the tort of negligence including chapters on the basic principles of duty of care, omissions and acts of third parties, the liability of public bodies, psychiatric harm, economic loss, breach of duty, causation and remoteness of damage and defences. It goes on to consider three special liability regimes—occupiers’ liability, product liability and breach of statutory duty—before turning to discussion of the personal torts and land torts. It concludes with chapters on vicarious liability and damages.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Machniak ◽  

A COIN operation involves both insurgents and local people. Its main goal is to neutralize all conditions enabling the development of insurgent movements or conducive to their development. In COIN operations, the basic efficiency criterion is the destruction or significant reduction of the opponent’s effectiveness and its ability to use local people for its own purposes. Military counterintelligence is responsible for analyzing the capabilities and organizational structure of the enemy’s reconnaissance system, including terrorist organizations or rebels, and planning undertakings that neutralize enemy activities, achieved, among others by recognizing its capabilities and taking remedial action on this basis. Anti-partisan operations constitute a coordinated effort to combat guerrilla activities in the theatre of war of a varied military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and social character, aimed against insurgents and against their impact on the state and the society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuks Okpaluba

‘Accountability’ is one of the democratic values entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. It is a value recognised throughout the Constitution and imposed upon the law-making organs of state, the Executive, the Judiciary and all public functionaries. This constitutional imperative is given pride of place among the other founding values: equality before the law, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. This study therefore sets out to investigate how the courts have grappled with the interpretation and application of the principle of accountability, the starting point being the relationship between accountability and judicial review. Therefore, in the exercise of its judicial review power, a court may enquire whether the failure of a public functionary to comply with a constitutional duty of accountability renders the decision made illegal, irrational or unreasonable. One of the many facets of the principle of accountability upon which this article dwells is to ascertain how the courts have deployed that expression in making the state and its agencies liable for the delictual wrongs committed against an individual in vindication of a breach of the individual’s constitutional right in the course of performing a public duty. Here, accountability and breach of public duty; the liability of the state for detaining illegal immigrants contrary to the prescripts of the law; the vicarious liability of the state for the criminal acts of the police and other law-enforcement officers (as in police rape cases and misuse of official firearms by police officers), and the liability of the state for delictual conduct in the context of public procurement are discussed. Having carefully analysed the available case law, this article concludes that no public functionary can brush aside the duty of accountability wherever it is imposed without being in breach of a vital constitutional mandate. Further, it is the constitutional duty of the courts, when called upon, to declare such act or conduct an infringement of the Constitution.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Alexander ◽  
Michael Edwards

Abstract The recent case of Geneva Trust Company SA v D and Ors [2020] JRC 104 has served to shed interesting new light on the duties of outgoing trustees regarding disclosure of documents and information (in other words, trust records) by a retiring trustee to a new trustee. The general principles of Jersey law in this area are relatively well-defined, as per the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984 (the Trusts Law) and a not inconsiderable body of case law derived from the Royal Court in Jersey as well as of the courts of England and Wales. However, it is useful to both professional trustees and legal practitioners alike when the Court provides further elucidation. The Geneva Trust Company case centred around the transfer of trust records for the D Discretionary Trust (the DDT) from the former trustee, Geneva Trust Company SA (formerly known as Rawlinson & Hunter Trustees SA) (the Former Trustee) to the current joint trustees, Fort Trustees Limited and Balchan Management Limited (collectively, the Current Trustees).


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