Tort of Negligence

ort of negligence

This paper presents case studies discussing negligence law and looks at the law surrounding breach of the duty of care in negligence in the case of Vairy v Wyong Shire Council. The purpose of this paper is to find out the particulars of the case and list the points that are necessary in order for someone to be found negligent. It is important for the repellent to be aware of the facts and circumstances in which public authorities have been found to be negligent, and the way in which the courts dealt with the matters. This paper also explores some of the principles that the judges use in order to decide whether a person has broken his/her duty of care in the tort of negligence.

Introduction

The tort of negligence is largely dependent upon the recognition of the existence of a duty of care owed by one person to another being breached by a failure to exercise care and skill. Within the remit of the law of tort, the recognition of a duty of care is a legal obligation placed upon an individual so that they must look to adhere to what is considered to be a reasonable standard of care so as to avoid any foreseeable harm to others. It is to be appreciated that, in tort, it has long been recognized that it is not possible for there to be liability in negligence without the claimant in any give case first looking to establish that they were owed a duty of care by the defendant and there had been a consequent breach of that same duty.

It is worth examining the decisions made by the judges in one of Australia’s leading and most contentious negligence cases in recent years. In the case of Vairy v Wyong Shire Council, the High Court dismissed the appeal in a 4:3 split decisions in which Vairy had failed in his bids to recover damages from the public authority in circumstances where there had been an alleged failure to warn of a risk of injury in connection with diving into coastal waters of variable depth. The plaintiff dived from a rock platform into the...