Some English Cases on Negligence

In King v. Phillips, [(1953) 1 QB 429], a taxi driver backed his taxi negligently and without looking behind ran into a child who was on a tricycle behind the taxi, slightly injuring him.





The child’s mother, who was in her house seventy or eighty yards away, heard the scream, and, looking, out of a window, saw the cab back into the tricycle, but she could not see the child.





In action by her for damage, for the same thus suffered by her, it was held that the test of negligence as per mother was whether the taxi-driver could reasonably have resend the risk of damage to her; that the taxi driver could not reasonably have contemplated that.





If he backed his taxi without looking where he was going, he might cause to the mother the injury complained of; and that, therefore, he owed her no duty of care and her claim should be dismissed, as defined by the system.





In Dorset Yacht Co. Ltd v Home Office [in appeal, Home Office v. Dorset Yacht Co. Ltd.], [(1970) AC 10041, seven Borstal boys were working on an island under the control and supervision of three officers. t night these boys left the island.





After causing another yacht to collide with the one they boarded, they cast adrift and damaged the plaintiff’s yacht which was moored offshore. The plaintiffs brought an action for damages against the home office alleging negligence.





It was yield that the taking by the Borstal boys of the nearby yacht and the causing of damage to the other yacht which belonged to the plaintiff ought to have been foreseen by the Borstal Officers as likely to occur if they failed to exercise proper control or supervision.





The plaintiff succeeded in the action as their escape was due to the negligence of prison or Borstal Officers, as described.





According to Glanville Williams [in his Book Criminal Law] states, "Negligence means a non-intentional failure to conform to the conduct of the reasonable man in respect of the consequence in question and it therefore involves both a subjective and an objective inquiry".








The Author "Micheal Robb" is an expert Legal adviser who owns and runs a site on Law,Rules and Regulations:


Rules


Pigeonhole principle


The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation