Topic 12 Seminar 3

1. Principles of Business
Seminar: Introduction to Tort
Law (1)
Stage 2: Topic 12

2. • Explain the difference between Tort Law and
Contract Law
• Demonstrate understanding of the purpose of
Tort Law
• List the main Torts in English law and explain
their role
• Explain the importance of the Tort of
Negligence.
2
Key topics / learning outcomes
of this Seminar

3. 3
Overview
• Introduction
• Tort Law and Contract Law compared
• Fault v Strict Liability
• Which Tort?
• Summary

4. 4
What is Tort?

5. 5
“Tortious liability arises from the breach of a
duty primarily fixed by law: this duty is
towards people generally and its breach is
redressible by an action for unliquidated
damages.”
Winfield

6. 6
What’s the difference
between liability in
Contract Law and Tort Law?

7. 7
Tort Contract
Duty owed to persons
generally
Duty owed to other
party/ies to contract
Duty imposed by law Duty accepted voluntarily
Damages are backward-looking
Damages are forward-looking
Primarily to protect non-economic
interests (NB
exceptions!)
Primarily to protect
economic interests

8. 8
Fault-based and strict
liability

9. Rafa goes into hospital to have a diseased kidney
removed. Dr. Murray performs the operation
but gets his notes muddled up. He removes the
healthy kidney by mistake.
9

10. Angela has just filled up her car with petrol.
Another car is in front of her, so she has to back
out to go round the other side of the pumps.
She reverses carefully, looking around and
behind her. Suddenly, she feels a bump. She
stops the car, walks round to the back and to
her horror sees Bert, a two-year old child lying
behind the car. She has hit him and he is badly
injured.

11. Charlie is in hospital for an operation and has an
anaesthetic injection into his spine. After the
operation he is paralysed from the waist down.
The anaesthetic was kept in glass ampoules
which in turn were kept in carbolic solution to
keep them sterile. After an investigation it is
discovered that the ampoules had microscopic
cracks in them, so they were contaminated with
carbolic.

12. Mary buys a new microwave. 6 months after she
bought it, it explodes while she is warming
some soup. She is badly injured and extensive
damage is done to her kitchen. Experts are
called in to examine the remains of the
microwave. They discover that the new alloy
which is used in part of the mechanism
becomes highly volatile when it comes into
contact with certain types of material, including
that of which the soup bowl is made

13. Which Tort?

14. Summary
• Differences between Tort Law and Contract Law
• Liability may be based on fault or may be strict
• Difference depends on policy
• Contract Law – more based on strict liability
• Tort Law – varies according to the Tort
• Negligence – fault-based – the most commonTort

15. Next session

16. End of Seminar
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© Pearson College 2013