Tort Duty of Care problem question
What is Tort and the Duty of Care? – The case of Tort Duty of Care problem question
To resolve the case of Tort Duty of Care problem question, it could be illustrated with some argument by various authors. Hoyk and Hersey (2017) argued that Tort law refers to the area of law which falls under the civil law. This arises from the civil court, with some exception such as contractual disputes. This law can redress the wrong activities done by a person and can provide relief from wrongful activities by persons providing monetary compensation for damages. This helps to provide full compensation for proven harms. If Samantha can prove the harms occurred for Extortionate plc, the bank must have to pay the compensation for damages of Samantha. Under the tort law, person or organisation will provide the compensation to the victims. In this tort law, the harms can be loss of future income, past income, medical expenses payment, suffering, pain, punitive damages. There are three types of tort law such as negligent, intentional and strict liability tort. Negligent tort refers to the law comprises under the harms to the people for failure of standard duty of care or certain level of care to the person such as accidents. Intentional tort refers to the harms occurred for intentionally to people for any kind of misconduct by someone including fault, fraud and theft etc. Strict liability tort is the law related with culpability of doing harm. It mainly concerns about act itself. Tort law is related with civil court where a person can take legal action against another for injury and can get compensation for the injury party entitled to (Legal and institutional aspects of integrated bank management, 2016). In tort law, there are four types of elements included such as duty, breach of duty, injury and causation. This is the biggest civil litigation which can encompass the personal injury for plaintiff.
Duty of care is the fiduciary responsibility operated by company directors for living up to standard of care. This can be both ethical and legal which help to take decisions in good manner. A duty of care refers to the legal duty of organization not to cause harm to stakeholders. According to Miller (2019) company directors are responsible for taking decisions and exercise fiduciary duty to make business decisions. Any kind of breach of duty of care by the company, clients and stakeholders can tale legal actions against organizations. This is the implicit responsibility coming from company director which can be written somewhere and help to take decision financially, legally and ethically. Directors use independent judgement, advice and trusted information. It helps to ensure good governance and best practices about business. This is mainly used in financial institutions (Gilbert, 2018). So, Duty of care is strongly applicable for Extortionate Plc to manage stakeholders, clients. Samantha will be able to take legal action against Extortionate plc for failure of uphold duty of care as Bank failed to manage the care to customers. For failure of duty of care, it will waste the assets, goodwill of Extortionate plc and property as well. If any person slips, trips of falls, there is no way to blame someone. But if it occurs for someone carelessness, it is possible to claim for this accidents and claim compensation. Samantha can take legal action against Extortionate plc for their risky stairs and carpet which causes for serious injury to clients in the bank. From this point of view, Samantha can take legal claim for compensation.
Under the doctrine of tort consider whether Extortionate PLC is liable for Samantha’s injury
To find out the reasonable cause of injury against Extortionate plc, Samantha needs to identify the causes of injury. As Samantha injured by falling on carpet, her friends told her that the carpet or stairs was risky as she fall in stairs. On the other hand, Extortionate plc was aware of the condition of stairs and carpet but didn’t take any action. Stair case is more dangerous case than floor case under tort law. The stairs got worn down where Extortionate plc did not take maintenance activities. Where the stairs made of carpet. For this reason, the carpet gets slippery and many accidents occurred (Brahams, 2017). Tort law falls under civil wrongful activities unfairly doing to someone causes for harm and loss where injured person can claim legal action for this harm. Sometimes, it is cannot be a crime which occurs for negligence. The plaintiff can recover the loss by lawsuit where the person needs to prove the breach of duty. The most common negligence cases under tort law are slippery, falls, medical malpractice, where property owner fails to act as accountable person to reduce the harm or loss.
Samantha injured for the negligence of Extortionate plc where the bank didn’t take any maintenance activities and provide any kind of information about the risk of stairs to the clients. It is legal injury for Samantha as it is included physical injury as the wrist was broken. On the other hand, it is included economic, emotional and reputation for Samantha. Under the tot law, this kind of injury or accident with Samantha premises of the Extortionate plc falls under negligence tort. Under the tort law, Samantha can take legal action against Extortionate plc because of negligence and claim compensation for physical, emotional and economic loss. Under the tort law, there are several code of conducts which require to follow by the people and must ensure legal duty to reduce the risk of harm to others. But Extortionate plc fails to ensure this risk because of their exclusion clause. As Extortionate plc fails to follow the standard of code to ensure security of people, it goes against the negligence tort.
What are the ethical considerations if any does the Bank owe the public?
Williams, (2016) stated that every organization or person needs to be more aware of security of clients. There are various issues those can come in front to minimise the risk of personal injury like exclusion clause. Extortionate plc should owe to the public and mist need to maintain the ethical code of conducts to ensure security of people in bank. For lack of carelessness of Extortionate plc, Samantha and other people got injured. But Extortionate plc could take proper ethical issues to reduce the risks. From this point of view, the ethical considerations of Extortionate plc can take for being owe to the public.
Firstly, Extortionate plc should ensure quality of stairs and carpet as clients do not face any kind of risks or harm on the stairs. Because bank should think about clients safety is the best interest for bank. Then, bank should warn clients about the potential risks. This will help clients to make them safe when walking in the stairs. This also help to minimise the risks of bank (Williams, 2016). If Extortionate plc warned Samantha and other clients about the risk of stairs, it will reduce the personal and economic injury of those injured persons. After that, Extortionate plc can use quality handrails in stairs to reduce the risks. If Samantha got the handrails, she didn’t put her hand towards front and might not be injured physically. So, Extortionate plc can add it for reduce potential risks.
Are there any possible defense for Extortionate PLC?
Samantha got injured for the carelessness of Extortionate plc. Under the Tort Law, this falls under the negligence tort where Samantha and other clients can take legal action against Extortionate plc. There is a reason of Extortionate plc not to inform clients about the risks of stairs and take any maintenance activity of the stairs. Extortionate plc depends on the exclusion clause and it must need to provide evidence and point out the part where it limits its risks. Exclusion clause can be done through signature, notice and course of dealing. Extortionate plc has possible defence to reduce the risks of lawsuit and compensation (Solutions, 2020). If Samantha take s legal action against Extortionate plc, bank will be able to defence this lawsuit because of its exclusion clause. Exclusion clause refers to the term in the contract where a party seeks limit or exclude the liability of the party from the particular risks under specific conditions or situations. The party will not face any liability for those kinds of risks or harms or breached of contract. The contract must be clear and specific.
Conclusion:
UK government develops several laws and legislations to ensure customer safety. After understanding the tort law and their activities in UK, the injury of Samantha falls under negligence of Extortionate plc. Therefore, Extortionate plc is liable for this injury and this bank should pay compensation to her. But for exclusion clause, bank can minimise the risks of claim of Samantha and other clients.
References
Williams, J., 2016. Duty of Care: Negligence: Impact on the business and its reputation. Michigan Law Review, 56(4), p.651.
John and Alex , 2016. Legal And Institutional Aspects Of Integrated Bank Management. 12th ed. Geneva, Switzerland: World Bank.
Brahams, D., 2017. Book Review: Personal Injury Litigation, Personal Injury under tort law. Medico-Legal Journal, 59(2), pp.133-133.
Gilbert, F., 2018. Annual Institute On Privacy And Data Security Law For Clients. 9th ed. New York, NY: Practising Law Institute.
Hoyk, R. and Hersey, P., 2017. The Ethical Considerations For Safety Of Customers. 10th ed. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Business Books.
Miller, J., 2019. Is it Possible and Preferable to Negotiate with clients?. Studies of Law, 11(1), pp.145-185.
Williams, J., 2016. Duty of Care: Negligence: Impact on the business and its reputation. Michigan Law Review, 56(4), p.651.
Solutions, E., 2020. Understanding Tort Law |UK Laws. [online] Mackesy Smye. Available at: <https://www.mackesysmye.com/articles-resources/general-law-related/understanding-tort-law> [Accessed 11 May 2020].
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