Negligence Case Law

1.0 INTRODUCTION

(Thorpe and Thorpe, 2008, p.47) tort is a civil wrong or wrongful act, whether intentional or accidental, from which injury occurs to another. Torts include all negligence cases as well as intentional wrongs which result in harm. According to Associate Professor, Fordham (2015) negligence as a tort requires more than mere lack of care. A claimant who wishes to sue in negligence must show:

(i) that the defendant owed him a legal duty to take care;

(ii) that there was a breach of this legal duty by the defendant; and

(iii) that the breach caused him recoverable damage.

This case relates to an injury claim against a hotel where Elena, a regular guest of The Success Hotel (“TSH”) suffered an injury while she was trapped in TSH’s

This requires the balancing exercise to determine whether the risk of harm to others which TSH's conduct created was justifiable. Here the court determine if the danger was great, then TSH should take greater care in order to ensure that the danger does not occur.

A case which illustrates this point is Paris v Stepney Borough Council 1951 AC 367 where the claimant was already blind in one eye, and whilst under a vehicle, rust flew off and fell into the claimant's good eye and lead him to being blind completely. The House of Lords held that the defendant was liable for the claimant's blindness because he had not issued safety goggles which would not have cost much to invest in.

Applying the reasonable care factor to TSH, it can be said that TSH did not exercise reasonable care as it failed to make effort to ensure its toilet is safe for its guests to use. On the other hand, there was not great danger or risk of harm could possibly occur by having one person trapped in a toilet cubicle. Although TSH should have exercised greater care by ensuring the toilet cubicles are in usable condition, Elena’s actions were not reasonably foreseeable by TSH notwithstanding the fact that Elena’s injury was due to her being trapped in the toilet cubicle owing to the faulty cubicle handle which came off and making it impossible for Elena to open the cubicle