Tort Law

It was the day of the much anticipated Ockington horse races-an annual event- and Faisal was looking forward to seeing his horse (Sherbert) run. Sherbert had twice won the Ockington race, and was tipped to win once again. Sadly, soon after the race began disaster struck when Sherbert was caught by a concealed trap, fell on the track and was kicked to death by other horses. Faisal suffered an immediate collapse and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Faisal was not the only casualty of the Ockington race. In the general chaos, one of the riders was thrown amongst the racing horses and suffered a cracked jaw. His partner, Jill, watching from the starting line feared he was more severely injured and suffered shock as a result. Mandrake, a doctor called to the scene, was so distressed at the sight of the dead horse that she also suffered shock, resulting in a miscarriage. Advise Faisal, Jill and Mandrake as to their rights and liabilities in the tort of negligence.

The tort of negligence provides a remedy for an injury or loss caused to a person due to the failure of another person to abide by a legal duty to take reasonable care. 1 It is pertinent to note here that in cases of tort of negligence, along with the injury, harm also has to be endured by the victim of the negligence. That is because negligence is not actionable per se, or as Greene LJ put it: “Negligence in the air will not do; negligence in order to give a cause of action, must be the neglect of some duty owed to the person who makes the claim”.

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Tony, a property developer, sold a one bedroom apartment to Michael for £ 100,00. The apartment was one of a large block of apartments which were erected upon land that had been unoccupied for several years. Tony had discovered that the entire foundations of the block were unsafe and insecure because Gent Local Authority had failed to inspect the foundations properly. The apartments built on the ground floor were especially vulnerable to loss in value and potential danger to the health and safety of the occupants. Tony and Michael were friends and Tony knew that Michael was anxious to find affordable accommodation following a break up with his long term partner. Tony informed Michael that the property was the 'best value likely to be found in the area'. This and similar statements were made over various lunches the two had organized to discussthe possible sale of the property. Unfortunately, the defect was not detected during the estate agent's survey. Soon after purchase, the state of the property became apparent, and Michael was forced to spend twice the value of the property in order to correct the defects and address the health and safety threats posed by the defective state of the property. Advise Michael, the Gent Local Authority and the estate agents of their liability in respect of the acts and statements relating to the defective property.

The apartments built on the ground floor were especially vulnerable to loss in value and potential danger to the health and safety of the occupants. Tony and Michael were friends and Tony knew that Michael was anxious to find affordable accommodation following a break up with his long term partner. Tony

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Evaluation of the development of the law; should we have a full-blown privacy law?

It is difficult to define the right to privacy in a definitive manner and the lack of a coherent definition of ‘privacy’ lies at the heart of lack of legislative will in creating a comprehensive privacy law or creating a specific tort of invasion of privacy. The notion of privacy may well mean different things to different people. Another factor responsible for lack of legislative will is the obvious conflict posed in interests of privacy and freedom of expression. Both rights are recognised by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and therefore balancing is required between these two rights.

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