ITL Revision Quiz 3 on Weeks 3 & 4 Lectures

1.

What is the primary aim of the law of torts, what is the difference between torts law and the law of contracts and the criminal law and
what interests do the law of torts recognise and protect?
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2.

What are the elements of the tort of negligence?

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3.

In the Donoghue case Lord Atkin attempted to lay down a general principle which would cover all the circumstances where a legal
duty of care could arise. What was that principle?
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4.

In 2002, as a result of the Ipp Report, each State and Territory parliament passed legislation making significant amendments to the
judge made law of negligence. This legislation contains not only amendments to the substantive law (when a duty is owed, standard
of care, causation and defence principles) but also provisions capping the damages awards that can be made for personal injury
claims, granting immunity for volunteers and good Samaritans and reducing time limits for the bringing of legal actions. What were
the policy reasons that motivated the passage of this legislation?
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5.

The law has moved on somewhat since Lord Atkin decided the Donoghue case. Over the intervening years the courts in Australia,
while repeatedly endorsing, adopting and applying the Donoghue decision have nonetheless refined and added to Lord Atkins test.
This is particularly the case in situations where the only loss or damage of which the plaintiff complains is pure economic loss
(PEL). The High Court of Australia has accepted that it is possible for Negligence actions to be brought in four different situations
where the only loss or injury that is suffered by the plaintiff is PEL. What are those four situations?
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6.

However the High Court has cautioned that, even when one of the four abovementioned situations arises, and even when the PEL of
which the plaintiff complains was reasonably foreseeable, it will not always be appropriate to allow such claims. The Court has
highlighted a number of other factors (salient features) which, together with reasonable foreseeability, will have to be taken into
account in determining the duty issue in a PEL case. What are the most important of those salient features?
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7.

A number of Australian High Court cases, starting with MLC v Evatt (1968) 122 CLR 556 have refined and developed the applicable
duty of care test in relation to the negligent provision of incorrect information or advice, to the point where the test for the existence
of a legal duty of care in such situations, at least in cases where the information or advice is provided in response to a direct request,
can probably now be safely described as settled law. What is that test?
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8.

Whether there has been a breach of the duty of care in the particular circumstances of any given case involves a consideration of
whether the defendant met the standard of care required by the law of negligence. The standard expected is that of the reasonable
man in the position of the defendant. Under the statutory reforms that were enacted around Australia in 2002, there is now a distinct
two-stage inquiry that must be used for determining what this standard requires. The first stage as per s.5B(1) of the Civil Liability
Act 2002 (WA) requires that the plaintiff must prove that the risk which eventuated and caused the plaintiffs damage was, at the
relevant time:
(a) __________________________________________________________________________________________________ ; and
(b) __________________________________________________________________________________________________; and
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9.

The second stage of that inquiry, as per s. 5B(2) of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) requires the court to determine what precautions
a reasonable person in the defendant's position would have taken against the not insignificant and reasonably foreseeable risk in
question. In determining what precautions a reasonable person would have taken against such a risk s. 5B(2) requires the court to
consider and weigh against each other all relevant considerations including (but not limited to) the following:
(a) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
(b) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
(c) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
(d) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Even when it can be proven that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, and that the defendant breached that duty, s. 5C of
the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) provides (in effect) that no claim can be brought for damages unless the plaintiff can also prove that:
(a) the harm of which the plaintiff complains would not have occurred ___________________ the defendants breach of duty; and
(b) the harm was of a kind _____________________________________________________ (for instance the law does not
recognise mere sadness or distress, not amounting to a recognised mental illness, as compensable damage); and
(c) the harm was of a kind that is not too remote that is, to say that it was harm of a kind that was ________________________
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(d) there is _________________________________________________ (beyond the question of remoteness) why it would not be
appropriate for the scope of the defendants liability to extend to that harm.

QUIZ COMPLETED BY (PRINT NAME AND STUDENT NUMBER): _______________________________________________________

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