A matter of life or negligence essay

The third and final requirement that is needed to prove negligence is that the defendant caused damage to the claimant in a direct manner. The law uses a double staged test to prove the damage caused is direct and not too remote from the fact.

This consists of, firstly, the defendant owed a duty of care to the claimant; secondly, this duty of care was breached; and finally as a direct result, the claimant suffered damage as a foreseeable, and not too much a remote, consequence. Therefore, the first requirement is to prove that Angus owed Steven a duty of care.

The duty of care element means that, even if a person failed to act with reasonable care, he cannot be held liable in a negligence action unless he owed a duty to the plaintiff.

The elements which constitute a Negligent Tort are defined as: a person must owe a duty Introduction Negligence is “conduct causing damage to another, in breach of the defendant’s duty of care owed to the other” (pg 425 Terry and Giugni (8.10).)