Law of Tort and Easement for LLB 1 Shart Q and Short Answer Part 2

1. 4. Duty of Care: Psychiatric Injury
   1. What is the general and somewhat outdated term sometimes still used to refer to various kinds of psychiatric injury?
   2. What is PTSD?
   It stands for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a recognised medical condition lasting for a long time after a stressful event.
   3. What term do the courts use to describe the hypothetical person who is not particularly vulnerable to psychiatric harm?
   Reasonable fortitude
   4. What is the legally relevant distinction between a primary and a secondary victim?
   A primary victim is one who apprehends immediate harm to himself as a direct result of the event caused by the negligence.
   5. What technical term is used to describe the period of time after an incident, during which a secondary victim must be exposed to the effects in order to claim?
   Immediate aftermath
   5. In which case did Lord Wilberforce apply his two stage test of liability for psychiatric injury?
   McLoughlin v O'Brian
   6. Which case signalled the start of the contraction of liability for psychiatric injury?
   5. Duty of Care: Economic Loss
   1. What are the three main elements necessary for a situation to be covered by Hedley Byrne-type liability in tort?
   A special relationship, reliance and that reliance being reasonable.
   2. Which case outlines an exception to the rule that, generally, social situations do not give rise to a special relationship?
   Chaudhry v Prabhaker
   3. What was the nature of the claimant's actionable damage in McFarlane v Tayside Health Board?
   Wrongful birth
   4. Which case is generally regarded as the ‘high-water’ mark of liability for economic loss in negligence?
   Junior Books v Veitchi Co Ltd
   5. Which of their Lordships in Caparo outlined the five particular circumstances in which liability for economic loss can lie?
   Lord Oliver
   6. The courts are reluctant to allow claims for economic loss in tort generally because they say that claimants will often have a more appropriate form of redress; what is this?
   A claim in contract
   7. Which activity was involved in the facts of Spring v Guardian Assurance?
   The writing of an employment reference.
   6. Miscellaneous Situations
   1. What is the legally significant difference between a large group of persons and an indeterminate group of persons?
   An indeterminate group is one whose membership cannot be foreseen.
   2. Which case formed the principle that the police owe no duty of care to individual members of the public?
   3. What alternative means of recovery is open to victims of torts which are also crimes?
   Compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
   4. What was the public policy decision made in McKay v Essex AHA?
   That someone cannot claim in tort for having been born (a wrongful life claim).
   5. Is there ever a duty to rescue in the tort of negligence?
   Only where party has made some undertaking to another, or where the law imposes such a duty (such as parents to their children).
   7. Breach of Duty: The Standard of Care
   1. What is the name of the objective test applied by the courts to establish whether or not a defendant has breached his duty of care?
   The “reasonable man” test
   2. What is important about the fact that this test is objective rather than subjective?
   An objective test does not take the characteristics of the particular defendant into account; he is held to an externally defined standard.
   3. What is the concept, used to describe a defendant's conduct, which is often considered by the courts to balance out the taking of risks by that defendant?
   Utility
   4. Which partial defence to a negligence action is governed by statute enacted by Parliament in 1945?
   Contributory Negligence — Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act
   5. Which test says that “A doctor is not guilty of negligence if he has acted in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of medical men skilled in that particular art”?
   The Bolam test, from Bolam v Friern HMC
   6. Is it true that the Bolam test applies only to professional doctors?
   No, it is a test for professional individuals in general.
   7. Which case restricted the effects of the Bolam test?
   Bolitho v City & Hackney HA
   8. Which technical term means “the facts speak for themselves”?
   res ipsa loquitur
   9. What was the ratio of Nettleship v Weston?
   That trainees and learners are subject to the same standards of care as those experienced in the activity; the objective test.