Negligence

Negligence

In Malaysia, where most of its laws have been codified since Independence, the law of tort has somewhat eluded this process of codification and remains almost entirely in common law. The law of tort is almost purely based on common law, and thus Malaysian laws are developed based on the English law of tort and other Commonwealth jurisdictions. The importation of these legal principles is made possible by section 3(1) of the Civil Law Act 1956.

Negligence is the most important tort in modern law which concerns breach of a legal duty to take care, with the result that damage is caused to the plaintiff. Negligence is defined as carelessness amounting to the culpable breach of duty; failure to do or recognise something that a reasonable person would do or recognise, or doing something that a reasonable person would not do. In cases of professional negligence, involving someone with a special skill, that person is expected to show the skill of an average member of his profession. Negligence protects against 3 different types of harm which include personal injury, damage to property, and economic loss. In order to establish negligence as a cause of action under the law of tort, a plaintiff must prove 4 main elements of negligence: that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care (duty of care); the defendant breached that duty of care by failing to conform to the required standard of conduct (breach of duty of care); the defendant’s negligent conduct was the cause of the harm to the plaintiff and the plaintiff was, in fact, harmed or damaged (causation); and that the harm suffered by the plaintiff was reasonable foreseeable (remoteness). Negligence is essentially concerned with compensating people who have suffered damage as a result of the carelessness of others and the compensation can be restricted through the doctrine of the duty of care. The remedy for the plaintiff in the tort of negligence is damages as compensation.

(1)Duty of Care...