2 Topics duty of care breach of duty negligence vs. Contract liability. Case studies include: a blind woman fell in a hole and sued the company that fixed it. A man was injured in a car accident and sued a trucking company for negligence. The company says there was no 'proximity' between them and the man.
2 Topics duty of care breach of duty negligence vs. Contract liability. Case studies include: a blind woman fell in a hole and sued the company that fixed it. A man was injured in a car accident and sued a trucking company for negligence. The company says there was no 'proximity' between them and the man.
2 Topics duty of care breach of duty negligence vs. Contract liability. Case studies include: a blind woman fell in a hole and sued the company that fixed it. A man was injured in a car accident and sued a trucking company for negligence. The company says there was no 'proximity' between them and the man.
FOR BUSI NESS Duty of Care Outcome 3.1: Contrast liability in tort with contractual liability. Outcome 3.2: Explain the nature of liability in negligence. 2 Topics Duty of care Breach of duty Negligence vs. contract liability. Case 1 Robert asked Susan out on a date. At the restaurant, Susan asked Robert to buy her a Coke. Robert does. Susan pours some into a glass and drinks it. She then pours some more and finds part of a human thumb in the Coke. Susan becomes ill and sues Coke for her illness. Coke says the contract was between Robert and Susan so she cannot sue. Who will win? 3 Case 2 MegaBank, a publicly traded company, released a warning that their profits would be lower than previously anticipated. The stock dropped 50%. Two months later, they announced their numbers and the stock dropped another 25%. At this point, Rudy started buying all the shares of MegaBank she could get in the market. She acquired 25% of the company. She then offered to buy all outstanding shares. When she owned everything, she found that the truth was even worse than announced and the company was worth almost nothing. She sued Freddy, the accountant who audited the annual account report. Who should win? Case 3 Glasgow Internet workers were digging to lay new cable to serve customers in a new neighborhood. Leaving for the day, one hole remained open so the workers put a piece of yellow tape across the hole so that people would see the hole and not fall in. A blind woman was walking by and fell in (not seeing the tape, or the hole). Was there a duty of care breach or did the workers act properly? 4 Case 4 Eddie became ill after drinking water from a nearby well which contained arsenic (a poison). Eddie said that the company which tested the water a few years ago did not say there was arsenic in the water and did not say they did not test for arsenic. Eddie said the company owed a duty of care to the people of that area and they breached that duty. The company says there was no proximity between them and Eddie so there was no duty of care. Who should win? Case 5 Jerry received a hysterectomy (so she could not have more children) but ended up getting pregnant. Jerry sued the doctor who performed the operation for the cost of raising the new child. Should she win? 5 Case 6 The government was owed $9m in tax by Gotcha, Ltd. A judge issued a court order to freeze Gotchas account at Habu Bank. Due to negligence Gotcha was able to withdraw $2.5m from their account. The government was unable to collect all it was owed and sued Habu for the $2.5m. Should Habu have to pay? Case 7 Ron was at a party when he met Annie, an attorney. He asked her about a problem he was having with a neighbor. Annie advised Ron to bring a suit in court because he should easily win. Ron spent considerable money bringing the suit and lost. Ron sued Annie for negligent advice. Should he win? 6 Case 8 Joan wanted to borrow $50,000 from Kevin. Joan offered her house as collateral for the loan and offered to have her lawyer draw up all the legal documents. Kevin agreed and said he would not hire a lawyer for this purpose. Joans lawyer said that by Kevin holding onto the paper title to Joans house, he would have the security he needed (which actually gave Kevin no rights at all). Joan did not pay and the problem became clear. Kevin sued Joans lawyer. Should he win? Homework Read about causation and remoteness of damages.