Textbook on David Howarth Clare College, Cambridge Butterworths London, Dublin, Edinburgh 1995
vu Contents Preface v Table of statutes xvii List of cases xxi Chapter 1 What is tort law? 1 Introduction 1 The functions of tort law 6 Compensation mechanism 7 Deterrence mechanism 9 Rectificatoryjustice 11 Method of testing the reasonableness of new behaviour 13 The economics of tort law a very brief introduction 15 The Coase Theorem 17 The costs of accidents 19 Chapter 2 Negligence: a preface 25 English negligence law and the struggle against generality 26 The appealof thefault system 32 Plan of the negligence chapters 33 Chapter 3 Fault 35 What is reasonable behaviour? 37 Fact or law 37 The reasonable man 38
viii Contents What does a reasonable person take into account? 40 Chance of an accident happening 41 In general 41 Threshold of risk 41 Seriousness of accident if it does happen 44 Cost of the accident summary 46 Adverse consequences of precaution 48 Private costs 49 Costs to others (1) general 50 The cost to others (2) dilemmas, emergencies and rescuers 51 Social and private costs together 55 Illegality 56 Knock-on effects as costs 56 Chances of adverse consequences materialising 57 The effectiveness issue 57 How does a reasonable person weigh factors? 60 The meaning of foreseeability 65 Mental state of the defendant 69 Intentional or unintentional 70 Children and the mentally ill 70 Capacity 71 A different standard? 73 The relevance of expertise 75 Is specialist training necessary? 76 Experts who fail to meet the ordinary standards of their profession 77 What should the level of ordinary competence for the profession be? 77 Bolam and other professions 78 Learners 81 Proofoffault 83 General standards 84 Subsequent remedial measures 85 Res ipsa loquitur 85 Other uses of res ipsa loquitur 86 Impacted information 87 Creating strict liability 87 Chapter 4 Causation and remoteness 88 The function of causation 89 Cause in fact basic concepts 90 'Probability 1 92 Causal puzzle cases 93 Two hunter problem 94 Causes that never happened McWilliams 95 Increasingrisks -McGhee 96 Hotson and loss of a chance 98 Economie loss cases proving there has been a loss 101
Contents ix Baker v Willoughby and supervening cause 102 Wilsher v Essex and multiple possibilities 104 Remoteness 108 The function of remoteness 108 The relationship between remoteness and the rest of negligence 111 The consequences of joint and several liability for remoteness issues 111 Remoteness in the age ofproportional fault 112 Causation and remoteness causal fade and remoteness proper 113 Foreseeability cures all Hls? 114 Remoteness and duty 114 The law in detail 118 Pre-existing condition of the plaintiff 118 Actions by the plaintiff 126 Jnterventions by others 136 THE DIEECTNESS APPEOACH 136 THE FORESEEABILITY APPROACH 137 MIXED APPROACHES AND THE SURVIVAL OF DIRECTNESS 140 Intervening natural events 148 Type'ofharm 154 Chapter 5 Duty 157 Three sources of confusion 158 What duty cases are about 161 Summary of duty arguments 165 1 Pure omissions 165 2 No deterrence value 166 3 Allocation ofpublic resources 166 4 Integrity of other legal rules 166 5 Plaintiff 's interest notprotected 166 6 Absolute public benefit 166 7 Defendant immunity 167 8 Lack ofauthority 167 9 Lack of special relationship 'proximity' 167 Pure omissions 171 Doubts about the concept of prior relationship 175 Doubts about the meaning of 'pure omission' 180 Doubts about whether there is a separate rule 183 Arguments for the traditional rule 184 No deterrence value 185 Natural deterrents 186 Natural deterrents plus the esdsting law adequate remedies elsewhere 187 Perverse incentives 191 Burden of persuasion 195 Court's role in the allocation of public resources 195 The basic idea 196 Detailed reasons for prohibiting the duty of care in cases involving the allocation of public resources 197 Single case 198
x Contents Inadequacies of adversarial system 199 No criteria by which to judge. 200 Judges andjuries not trained to assess such issues 201 Democracy and authority 201 A different view Lord Edmund-Davies in McLouglin v O'Brian 202 Excursus on the liability of public bodies 207 Related points that are really fault arguments in disguise. 211 State should be allowed to experiment 211 Difficulty ofjudging professionals 212 Integrity of other legal rules 213 Negligence vs contract 214 Negligence vs other torts 223 Negligence vs procedural law 226 Negligence and administrative law 229 Negligence vs company law and other miscellaneous provisions 233 Plaintiff's interest not protected 234 Interests/ types of harm not recognised at all 234 Relational interests plaintiff 's interests partially recognised 238 Pure economie loss 242 Nervous shock orpsychiatrie damage 248 DIRECT NON-RELATIONAL NERVOUS SHOCK 248 RELATIONAL NERVOUS SHOCK 254 Absolute public benefit 259 Defendant immunity 260 Lack of authority 262 Lack of relationship 'proximity' 262 Chapter 6 Economie loss and negligence 267 The basic principle economie loss not recoverable 269 The Hedley Byrne exception to the rule 275 Some frequently asked questions about Hedley Byrne 277 The present debate about Hedley Byrne 280 Caparo v Dickman 280 White v Jones 283 Spring v Guardian Assurance 286 Henderson v Merrett 290 Anomalies 294 Surveyors vs auditors 294 Piggy back loss 295 Difference between economie loss and property damage 296 Arguments allegedly lying behind present law 300 Separation of tort and contract 300 Protecting the English third party benefit rule 301 Contract about expectations and benefits, tort about harms and losses and the supposed uncertainty of economie loss 303 Problems ofassessing value when no exchange 303 Anthropological objections to mixing tort and contract 306
Economie incentives 308 Protection of competitive process 309 Waste of resources 310 Lord Denning, Robert Reich and paper entrepreneurialism 314 Externalities and the production ofvaluable information 316 Floodgates 318 Flooding the courts rights too popular to grant 319 Flooding the defendant 319 Distance from the paradigm case of negligence, viz personal injury 322 Who benefits from the compensability of economie loss? 326 Relational loss 326 Summary and conclusions 328 Contents xi Chapter 7 Breach of statutory duty (1) in general 332 Introduction 332 Negligence per se 333 Evidence of negligence 333 No liability unless additional evidence of intent to protect specific group 334 Fault 335 Predictability 335 Suppression of vice 336 The law in detail 338 When is there a private right of action? 338 Plaintiff can't show fault 338 Forms of loss not recoverable in negligence 345 Contract puts the risk on plaintiff 352 An obsolete reason evading the common employment rule 354 Causation and remoteness 356 Defences 359 Public nuisance breach of statutory duty without a statute 360 Chapter 8 Breach of statutory duty (2) specific statutory duties 366 Occupiers' liability 368 The 1957 Act 369 Occupiers 370 Premises 371 Visitors 372 Common duty of care 375 CHILDREN 375 VISITORS WTTH SPECIAL SKILLS 376 WARNINGS 377
xii Contents Exclusion o f liability 378 Independent contractors 380 The 1984 Act 381 Non-occupiers' liability 383 Vendors and landlords 383 Builders and architects 385 Local authorities 386 Economie loss 386 Liability for animals 387 Liability for damage caused by animals 387 Keepers 390 Defences 390 Liability for straying livestock 391 Dogs ihat worry livestock 392 Products liability 392 What is products liability? 393 Possible liability regimes 395 Arguments about the best rule 397 Economie arguments 397 Moral arguments 403 Political arguments 405 The law in detail 405 The 1985 Directive 405 The 1987 Act 410 BASIC LIABILITY STANDARD 411 DEFENCES 417 REMOTENESS AND CAUSATION 424 CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE 4 2 7 Differences between the Act and the Directive 427 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 427 'PURPOSE' IN s 3 428 'DLD NOT SUPPLY" VS *DID NOT PUT IN CIRCULATION' 429 STATE OF THE ART 429 Common law liability 430 Intermediate inspection 431 Proving fault 432 Employers' liability 434 Common law 434 Competent fellow workers 436 Safe place of work 437 Safe equipment and materials 437 Effective supervision and a safe system of work 439 Chapter 9 Intentional torts (1) physical interference 441 Trespass to land 441 Intention 442 Interference 443 Licence, authority and necessity 445
Contents xiii Who can sue 447 Remedies 448 Trespass to goods 452 Assault and battery 453 Technical requirements 454 Mental element 455 Consent 456 Lawful arrest 458 False imprisonment 459 Restraint 459 Mental element 462 Knowledge of plaintiff 462 Who can be sued? 463 Prisoners'rights 465 Defences 465 Malicious prosecution 465 Prosecution 466 Ended in the plaintiff s favour 467 No reasonable and probable cause 468 Malice 468 Damage 468 A general tort? Wilkinson v Downton to Khorasandjian v Bush 469 Chapter 10 Intentional torts (2) economie and moral interests 471 Conversion 471 Inducing a breach of contract and interfering with contract 474 Conspiracy 484 Interference in trade or business by unlawful means 487 Breach of confidence 492 Chapter 11 Nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher 495 Who ought to win nuisance cases? an economist's view 497 What is a nuisance? 499 The degree of interference 501 The purpose of the def endant's activity 502 Reasonableness of the plaintiff's expectations 504 Locality 504 Type of loss 507 Unusual sensitivity 510 Fault 511 Parties to the action 515 Defences 520
xiv Contents Prescription 520 Statutory authority 521 Remedies 522 Injunction 522 Damages 524 Abatement 525 Rylands v Fletcher 526 'Strict liability' 531 Escape 533 Accumulating dangerous things 534 Remoteness 534 Act or state of the plaintiff 535 Third party interventions 535 Special cases fire and nuclear incidents 536 Fire 536 Nuclear radiation 537 Chapter 12 Defamation 539 Malicious falsehood, economie loss and reputation 540 Who can have a reputation? 542 What is defamatory? 543 Three tests 544 Judge vs jury and the 'meaning' of words 545 Temporal change, minority opinions and the virtuous few 547 Vulgar abuse 551 True and false innuendo 552 Reference to plaintiff 553 An objective test the loose-thinking man on the Clapham omnibus 554 Unintentional defamation 554 Group libel 556 Publication 558 Standard of care 558 Republication 560 Innocent dissemination 562 Slander 565 Defences 567 Truthorjustification 567 The sting of the libel and context 568 'It is alleged that' 569 Conclusiveness of convictions 569 Fair comment 570 Comment vs fact 571 Public interest 574 Basis in truth 575 Fairness of the comment 575
Contents xv Absence ofmalice 577 Absolute privilege 577 Parliament 577 Courts 578 Civil service 580 Qualified privilege 580 Reporis about matters of public interest 580 Matters of private duty and interest 581 Malice 584 Consent 584 Remedies 585 Injunctions 585 Damages 585 Bad reputation 590 Chapter 13 Damages 591 Types of damages awarded 592 Nominal damages 592 General and special damages 593 Aggravated damages 593 Exemplary or punitive damages 595 Heads of compensatory damages 601 The effects of lump sum compensation 602 Waitandsee 602 Lump sums, interest rates and the art ofprophecy 603 Avoiding the lump sum structured settlements 606 Loss of earnings 608 Lost earnings before trial 609 Lost future earnings 610 The lost years 612 Collateral benefits 613 Expenses 616 Mitigation 617 Expenses of others 617 Wrongful conception 619 Pain and suffering 621 Loss of amenity 621 Property damage 622 Interest 623 Other sources of compensation 624 The Motor Insurers Bureau 624 The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board 625 Death and the Fatal Accidents Act 626 Survivorship actions 627 Dependency claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 627 Calculating the damages 629 Contribution 630
xvi Contents Chapter 14 Vicarious liability 632 Has the employer committed a tort itself? 635 Has someone else committed a tort? 635 Is the tortfeasor an employee of the employer? 636 Was the tort committed in the course of employment? 641 Not doing the job at all 644 The dishonesty torts 644 Deviating motor vehicles 646 Is the tortfeasor an independent contractor of the employer? 648 Is there a non-delegable duty? 649 Extra-hazardous activities 650 Employers' common law duties 650 Bailees 650 Public nuisance and the highway 651 'Collateral negligence' 651 Chapter 15 Defences 652 Contributory negligence 652 Proportionality 653 Responsibility, causation, standards and proportionality 654 Seat-belts, crash-helmets and causation 657 100% contributory negligence 658 Apportionment 658 Standard of care 659 Contributory negligence in torts other than negligence 660 Volenti non fit injuria or consent 661 Voluntary' 663 Agreed in advance or causation 663 IUegality 665 Necessity 669 Index 671