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Duty Of Care Examples

Decent Essays

a. Describe what is a Duty of Care
A duty of care is a persons’ responsibility to avoid acts that could be likely to cause harm to others. The onus is on the plaintiff to show that the defendant owes them a duty of care.
b. State the precedent case for duty of care
Donoghue vs Stevenson (1932) (the ‘neighbour principle’) is the benchmark case for duty of care.
Mrs Donoghue's friend had purchased her a bottle of ginger beer. After she had consumed the ginger beer she discovered a decomposing snail in the bottom of the bottle. She became ill. Donoghue took legal action against Stevenson, she couldn't sue for breach of contract because her friend purchased the ginger beer. The lawyers claimed Stevenson breached the contract because he owed a …show more content…

The product that was manufactured should be ‘fit for purpose’, so the ginger beer should have been drinkable without making the person drinking it sick.
The neighbour principle came about because Donoghue hadn’t purchased the drink, she had received the drink as a gift. She was a neighbour, not a party into the contract.

c. Research and briefly discuss 2 additional important examples of Duty of Care cases.
Grant vs Australian Knitting Mills (1933) is an important duty of care case.
The underwear was purchased and worn by Grant. At the end of the day Grant had itching at the ankles. Grant treated himself with calamine lotion, but it didn’t help he had scratched himself until he bled. Grant carried on wearing the underwear, he got much worse, and at this stage he saw a dermatologist who suggested he get rid of the underwear. Grant ended up in hospital bedridden for a long time. The action against Australian Knitting Mills was because the chemical in the cuffs or ankles caused dermatitis.
The judgement was negligence in manufacture, excess sulphites were left in the underwear. The manufacturer owed a Duty of Care to the purchasers of their underwear. The purchaser of the product will be able to be wear the underwear without injury to people or

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