Duty of Care

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Duty of Care Essay

When looking at duty of care the first thing that the court will consider is whether it was reasonably foreseeable that if the defendant acts in the way that they do the claimant will suffer injury/harm/damage as a result; Donoghue v Stevenson, or property damage; Smith v Littlewoods

the second thing that the court will consider is proximity, a relationship or type of victim. There are three types of victim; a primary victim, secondary victim or a rescuer. A primary victim is someone that is directly involved in the incident; Page v Smith . A secondary victim is usually a bystander or a person that witnesses the incident. To claim as a secondary victim the claimant must satisfy the criteria set by Alcock , these are that the claimant must have ties of love and affection with a primary victim, the claimant must have come across the immediate aftermath; Bourhill v Young, and the claimant cannot have heard about the incident from a third party. A rescuer is someone that goes to hep at an incident. To claim as a rescuer the claimant must have put themselves at risk of physical damage; Haynes v Harwood, even if the claimant suffers psychological damage if they have done the aforementioned they may still win;Chadwick. Emergency service workers do not usually win as the court see it as their duty to put themselves at risk of physical damage to help at incidents; White, this is not always the case; Ogwo.

The last thing that the court considers is whether it is fair, just and reasonable to allow the claim or whether allowing the claim will open the floodgate for other similar claims; Caparo.

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