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Duty of care refers to the circumstances and relationships which the law recognises as giving rise to a legal duty to take care. A failure to take such care can result in the defendant being liable to pay damages to a party who is injured or suffers loss as a result of their breach of duty of care.
- Anns V Merton London Borough Council
The defendant Council was responsible for inspecting the...
- Topp V London Country Bus
Topp v London Country Bus [1993] 1 WLR 976 Court of Appeal....
- Bourhill V Young
Bourhill v Young [1943] AC 92 The claimant was a pregnant...
- Home Office V Dorset Yacht
Home Office v Dorset Yacht Co Ltd [1970] AC 1004 House of...
- Anns V Merton London Borough Council
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- Duty of Care
- The Current Law: The Caparo Test
- Exceptions and Special Situations
- Duty of Care and Third-Party Actors
- Duty of Care and Public Service Immunity
- Special Claimants
- Cite This Module
What is a ‘Duty of Care’?
Duty of care constitutes the first of the three primary elements of tort (duty of care, breach and causation). Whilst there are many situations in which an individual might have acted carelessly, unless they have a duty of care to the person harmed by their carelessness, then no claim will arise. This is a key point - whilst a case (or problem question) might present the clearest existence of breach and causation possible, it will fail if duty of care is not present at the time of the breach....
The Development of the Duty of Care
The legal basis for finding a duty of care has its roots in Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. Although, as will be noted below, there exists a more modern test to establish a duty of care, Donoghue v Stevenson provides the theoretical basis for the duty of care, and thus modern negligence, and so it is necessary to be familiar with the case. Before Donoghue v Stevenson, the concept of duty of care did not exist in any particularly notable form within the English law. This meant that unless...
Caparo constitutes the currently applicable test for establishing a duty of care, and thus it is important that you have an in-depth knowledge of the how the test is applied. It is worth noting, however, that the test should only be applied in full in situations which do not involve a pre-defined duty of care. Such situations include doctor-patient...
There exists a significant variety of situations in which establishing a duty of care becomes more complicated than simply applying the Caparo test. These situations will often feature in problem questions as a way of testing the completeness of your knowledge, and so it is important to be aware of them.
For the vast majority of cases, the actions of third parties will not impart liability on claimants, and will usually be held as a novus actus interveniens, as per Home Office v Dorset Yacht Co Ltd [1970]. Thus, the general rule is that there is no duty of care to prevent a third party’s actions. However, there are exceptions to this rule, laid dow...
Finally, there exists a significant exception to the duty of care principle, when it comes to various public services. Overall, the stance of the courts is that public services do not have a duty of care towards individuals. This can be thought of in terms of the ‘fair, just and reasonable’ part of Caparo- essentially the courts are remiss to find ...
Finally, there are certain set situations in which a duty of care will be imposed, even if it would traditionally be legally unfeasible.
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Duty of care is a legal obligation to protect others from harm. For example, an employer has a duty of care to keep their employees safe. A breach of duty of care that leads to injury can result in a personal injury claim being brought against those responsible.
Duty of care. Employers have: a common law 'duty of care' towards their employees; specific rules they must follow under health and safety law; This means employers must do all they reasonably can to protect their employees' health, safety and wellbeing at work. This could include: providing a safe working environment
What does Duty of care mean? A duty of care refers to the circumstances and relationships giving rise to an obligation upon a defendant to take proper care to avoid causing some form of foreseeable harm to the claimant in all the circumstances of the case in question.
Legal Case Summary. Nettleship v Weston [1971] 2 QB 691. The case of Nettleship v Weston 1 concerned the concept of a duty of care which is a fundamental element of the tort of negligence.
In order to succeed in a negligence action, the claimant must prove that: the defendant owed them a duty of care; ch of that duty;the claimant. ffered damage, which was caused by that breach of duty; andthe damage was not too remote.The claimant may have certain defen.
