Negligence: duty of care, breach and damage
LUG-101 Law of Torts including Motor Vehicle Accident and Consumer Protection Act, Unit III: Negligence, including contributory negligence and other defences. · LLB · 60 min
Negligence is the most important tort in modern law: road accidents, medical mishaps, collapsing buildings and defective products are all negligence claims. This lecture gives the definitions (Alderson B. in Blyth v. Birmingham Waterworks, Winfield), the two senses of the word, and the three essentials: a duty of care (Donoghue v. Stevenson's neighbour principle, foreseeability and proximity, Bourhill v. Young, the Caparo three-stage test), its breach (the reasonable man, Glasgow Corporation v. Muir, Bolton v. Stone and the factors of risk) and consequential damage (causation and remoteness). It closes with professional negligence (Bolam, Jacob Mathew, V.P. Shantha) and the bee-keeper problem of 2022-23 on the limits of Rylands v. Fletcher. It answers the past questions on the definition and essentials of negligence (2019-20, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2025-26), on Donoghue v. Stevenson and on foreseeability and duty of care (2022-23).
Objectives
- Define negligence (Alderson B., Winfield) and distinguish negligence as a state of mind from negligence as an independent tort.
- Explain the duty of care: the neighbour principle of Donoghue v. Stevenson, reasonable foreseeability and proximity, and the Caparo three-stage test.
- Apply the reasonable man standard to decide breach, weighing the magnitude of risk, the gravity of harm, the cost of precautions and the utility of the act.
- Explain the third essential, consequential damage: factual causation and remoteness.
- State the Bolam test and its Indian adoption in Jacob Mathew v. State of Punjab, and place medical negligence under consumer law.
- Solve a problem distinguishing negligence from strict liability under Rylands v. Fletcher and absolute liability under M.C. Mehta.
Slides
- Negligence: meaning and definitions
- Blyth v. Birmingham Waterworks (1856)
- The three essentials
- Duty of care: Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932)
- Foreseeability and proximity: Bourhill v. Young
- The Caparo three-stage test
- Breach: the reasonable man
- Factors in deciding breach
- Damage: causation and remoteness
- Professional negligence: Bolam and Jacob Mathew
- Negligence and strict liability: the bee-keeper problem
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