Philosophy 2080 Lecture Notes - Product Liability, Haemophilia, Nervous Shock In English Law
Document Summary
The risk is relational, the plaintiff must be a foreseeable plaintiff. Although all of us are entitled to live our lives free from the risk of injury, the law will only extract compensation for our injury from the defendant where there is fault. Fault in negligence is failing to recognize a foreseeable harm, there is no duty if harm is not foreseeable. This case also clearly establishes the order of the questions for liability in negligence. We can"t simply say that because someone was injured, there must be liability, reasoning back from damages and causation. This is a great case to see the stark contrast between the majority and the dissenting opinion. The majority opinion stays true to negligence principles, insisting on the duty of care to the particular plaintiff, insisting that without reasonable foreseeability, there is no duty owed to the plaintiff.