LEGAL CASE STUDIES

Legal Case Studies

Legal Case Studies

This paper is based on case studies regarding legal liabilities and negligence and tort. The paper is divided into three tasks and each task is based on different case studies. The first task is based on contractual and occupiers' liability. The second task is based on vicarious liability and the third task is based on tort and negligence.

Task 1: Contractual and Occupiers' Liability

The most important function of tort law is to define the conditions under which and the extent to which a person has to compensate another person's loss. By defining the dividing line between liability and nonliability, the law fixes the spheres within which persons can trust that, on one hand, the integrity of their rights is not infringed by others without sanction and that, on the other hand, they themselves can act freely without having to fear the sanction of liability (Atiyah, 2003).

One is guilty of an intentional tort if he or she intentionally inflicts injury on another. One is liable for negligence if he or she fails to act as a reasonable person would in the circumstances and unintentionally injures another. Strict liability imposes liability without fault. Originally, strict liability applied only when a party engaged in an unreasonably dangerous activity, such as blasting. Today, it applies primarily in cases of product liability, when a consumer is harmed by a defective product (Atiyah, 2003).

Liability is incurred only when the injured suffered damage, which is determined by the categories of interests that have been infringed (personal injury, property damage, or pure economic loss). The extent of the damage generally regulates the extent of compensation. The compensation is regularly granted in terms of money. The main aim of damages is full reparation of the entire damage or, as it is often expressed, to restore the victim as far as possible to the position the victim would have been in if the tort had not been committed. As already mentioned, besides such compensatory damages, punitive damages are encountered in several legal systems (Atiyah, 2003).

Though all legal systems protect the integrity of the person, the extent of the protection varies. It seems to be a universal rule that injury to bodily integrity entitles one to damages for pecuniary loss, which includes the cost of medical treatment, rehabilitation measures, and lost income. Most legal systems also award a sum for the immaterial harm (pain and suffering) in such cases. The amounts tend to be standardized, but they vary considerably from country to country (Atiyah, 2003).

Russell's Case

It is less certain whether a victim is also entitled to damages in case of impairment of mental health, such as a nervous shock when facing a horrible traffic accident involving other persons. Most systems are reluctant to award damages in such a case and qualify it as a normal risk of life, for which no compensation is owed. Only when the shock amounts to a recognized illness and when a relative is involved is an exception rather widely ...