Law on Business

Lucy's wedding scenario

ADVISES TO LUCY

Lucy was violently sick and became very ill after eating chicken which, unknown to Mr Leslie, was contaminated with salmonella. While Lucy was not a party of the service contract made by Mrs Lastic and Mr Leslie, which can be seen in the scenario, she could not ask Mr Leslie to be held liability for a breach of contract. So, who should be claimed for her damage, and how could she defend her legitimate rights?

Firstly, Lucy could ask Mr Leslie for compensation due to his duty of care. According to the law of torts, an individual can ask others to be held responsible for damage caused by a tort i.e. a civil wrong other than a breach of contract or a breach of trust. Even if it is a tort of negligence, the doer should also bear the legal liability and responsible when he/she is in breach of a legal duty of care owed by him, or her, to the aggrieved party. In this case, although there was no contractual relationship between Lucy and Mr Leslie, Mr Leslie should also pay for his negligence that not checking out the chicken contaminated with salmonella, according to the neighbour principle, which was clearly established in Donoghue v Stevenson (1932). Strict liability, “a managing director of a company is liable for all harm caused by his defective goods whether or not he is aware of the fault or the cause”, is also emphasized in The Consumer Protection Act 1987.

Secondly, Lucy must prove the following three to succeed in an action for negligence. First, to prove Mr Leslie owed her a duty of care, which had been extended and added to by judicial decisions. Obviously, Mr Leslie had a legal duty of care that making sure his food was not bad to his clients, as a restaurant manager, and Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) can be cited here to prove it. In addition, to prove Mr Leslie was in breach of that duty. The chicken Mr Leslie offered could be claimed to assay that it was contaminated with salmonella. And Mr Leslie failed to...