Tort law worksheet with answers

An employer's duty to provide competent staff, safe equipment, a safe place and a safe system of work is:

1. AA duty owed only to managers
2. BA non-delegable duty
3. CA duty that applies only in factories
4. DA duty that can be passed to any contractor

In a personal injury claim, "special damages" usually cover:

1. AExtra damages to punish the defendant
2. BA nominal sum to mark that a right was infringed
3. CSpecific financial losses up to trial, such as lost earnings and medical costs
4. DCompensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity up to the date of the trial

In general, a person who hires an independent contractor is:

1. ALiable for all torts committed in the same year
2. BLiable only if the contractor has no insurance
3. CAlways vicariously liable for the contractor's torts
4. DNot vicariously liable for the contractor's torts

A driver is in a minor collision, suffers no physical injury, but his chronic fatigue illness becomes permanent. In Page v Smith, he could recover because:

1. AHe had a close tie of love with the other driver
2. BPsychiatric injury is always recoverable after any road accident, however minor
3. CThe defendant intended to injure him
4. DHe was a primary victim and personal injury of some kind was foreseeable

A premature baby goes blind. Excess oxygen negligently given was only one of five possible causes. In Wilsher v Essex AHA, the claim:

1. AFailed, because no duty was owed to a baby
2. BSucceeded, because the negligence materially increased the risk of the blindness
3. CSucceeded, with damages reduced by four fifths
4. DFailed, because the claimant could not prove the negligence caused the blindness

A boarding-house warden employed by a school abuses the boys in his care. In Lister v Hesley Hall, the employer was:

1. AVicariously liable, because the abuse was closely connected with his duties
2. BNot liable, because abuse is never within the course of the warden's employment
3. CLiable only for its own negligent hiring
4. DNot liable, because the warden acted for himself

In Lachaux v Independent Print (2019), the Supreme Court held that "serious harm" under section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 must be shown:

1. AOnly by showing the claimant lost money
2. BOnly by the inherent meaning of the words
3. CBy reference to the actual impact of the statement, as a matter of fact
4. DBy the number of people who read it, which must exceed a fixed threshold

A prisoner known to be a suicide risk kills himself in a police cell after officers leave the door hatch open. In Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the House of Lords held:

1. AHis deliberate act did not break the chain, because it was the very thing the duty aimed to prevent
2. BThe police were not liable, because a sane adult's suicide is always a voluntary act breaking the chain
3. CHis deliberate act broke the chain of causation
4. DThe claim failed because of illegality