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Raising the standard of care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jon Holyoak*
Affiliation:
University of Leicester

Extract

Mounting concern over the burgeoning growth and impact of the tort of negligence has, as is well known, led to a backlash in recent years. The higher courts have re-imposed more restrictive approaches to the question of the duty of care, culminating in the assertion that ‘close and direct proximity’ is the pre–condition for the imposition of a duty of care, by the Privy Council in Yuen Kun Yeu v A–G .f Hong Kong. However, this attention, focussed on what are generally cases peripheral to the mainstream of tortious liability, has diverted many commentators away from the issue of breach of duty, which lies at the heart of the great preponderance of tortious litigation

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1990

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References

1 [1988] AC 175.

2 [1978] AC 778.

3 See Morris (1942) 42 Col L Rev 1147, Linden, (1968) 11 Can Bar J 151 for the position in, respectively, the USA and Canada.

4 [1952] 2 All ER 789.

5 Ibid, at 792.

6 [1955 1 1 WLR 283.

7 [1935] 1 KB 516 at 540.

8 [1934] 4 DLR 593, [1934] WN 171.

9 [1934] WN 171 at 172.

10 Eg Blenkiron v The Great Central Gas Consumers Company (1860) 2F & F 437.

11 [1909] SC 807.

12 Ibid, at 809.

13 [1951] AC 367.

14 Ibid, at 302.

15 [1956] AC 552.

16 [1960] AC 145.

17 Eg Pans v Stepney Borough Council, supra n 13.

18 Eg General Cleaning Contractors v Christmas [1953] AC 180.

19 [1956] AC 552 at 574.

20 (1969) 119 NLJ 153. See also Brown v John Mills & Co (Llanidloes)(1970) 8 KIR 702.

21 [1984] 1 QB 405.

22 Eg Maynard v West Midlands RHA [1984] 1 WLR 634.

23 (1882) 9 QBD 546.

24 Ibid, at 551.

25 [1933] AC 201.

26 [1937] 3 All ER 811.

27 This also applies in bailment cases. See Global Dress Co v Boase (WH) & Co [1966] 2LI Rep 72.

28 (1987) Independent, 18 Dec.

29 Supra, n 19.

30 [1984] QB 493.

31 Ibid, at 513–514.

32 [1985] AC 871.

33 Ibid, at 895.

34 Ibid, at 900.

35 Ibid, at 903.

36 Ibid, at 895.

37 (1950) 94 SJ 599.

38 (1969) 210 EG 335.

39 [1949] 4 DLR 71, affd (1950) 4 DLR 223.

40 Maynard v West Midlands Regional Health Authority [1984] 1 WLR 634.

41 1987, unreported.

42 [1984] AC 296.

43 [1987] QB 730.

44 Eg Johnston v Board of Governors of the Hospital for Sick Children, 1984, unreported.