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TORT: Duty of Care in 'Special Relationships'

Hi guys,

When discussing the duty of care for negligence in cases of special relationships (doctor/patient, manufacturer/customer etc), is it necessary to still talk through the Caparo test etc or is it sufficient to state that this is an established duty situation, e.g. (Donoghue v Stephenson) for manufacturer/customer.

Thanks!
You should only ever apply the Caparo test in novel duty situations. If you can cite an authority where a duty of care has been established in a given type of situation, you don't need to bother with it.
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Avatar for missemma91
missemma91
OP
Thanks for getting back to me, that's very useful to know!
Original post by missemma91
Thanks for getting back to me, that's very useful to know!


Also, if you can't think of the decided case for the duty, but it's is extremely obvious that there is a duty, say something like ''it is trite law that Marjorie, as a road user, owes Terry, a pedestrian, a duty of care..."
Reply 4
Avatar for ktwolves
ktwolves
In general, what is really needed is to identify the central theme of the question in front of you, to determine how much to write on a particular issue.

When discussing the duty of care for negligence in cases of special relationships (doctor/patient, manufacturer/customer etc), is it necessary to still talk through the Caparo test etc or is it sufficient to state that this is an established duty situation, e.g. (Donoghue v Stephenson) for manufacturer/customer.

If it is about duty of care, then you will need to discuss the general principle, its application and various control devices to impose or deny a duty of care. However, a question may slant towards either Standard of Care or Causation, the issue of duty of care may be dismissed in no more than a paragraph why duty of care has arisen but you must before moving on. There should be a mark or two awarded here.

At all times, you need to pay particular attention to policy reasoning when applying the judge-made laws.
(edited 11 years ago)

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