Tort law worksheet with answers

How do English courts usually treat a person injured while rescuing someone endangered by the defendant's negligence?

1. AThey can usually claim, because rescue is foreseeable
2. BThey cannot claim, because they volunteered
3. CThey can claim only if they are professional rescuers, such as firefighters
4. DThey can claim only half their damages

Which defence applies when the claimant voluntarily accepted the risk of harm?

1. AContributory negligence
2. BSelf-defence
3. CVolenti non fit injuria (consent)
4. DNecessity

Wrongfully dealing with another person's goods in a way that denies their rights, such as selling them, is the tort of:

1. AConversion
2. BNuisance
3. CBattery
4. DPassing off

An occupier hires a reputable lift company to maintain a lift. The company's negligence causes an accident. Under Haseldine v Daw, the occupier is:

1. ALiable only if the lift is new
2. BNot liable, if it reasonably chose a competent contractor
3. CLiable for any defect on its premises
4. DLiable, because maintenance is non-delegable

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. BThe defendant intended to injure him
3. CPsychiatric injury is always recoverable after any road accident, however minor
4. DHe was a primary victim and personal injury of some kind was foreseeable

A surgeon fails to warn a patient of a small risk of a serious complication. The patient would have had the operation anyway, but later. The risk materialises. In Chester v Afshar, the House of Lords held:

1. AThe surgeon was liable only for the cost of the operation
2. BThe surgeon was liable, modifying normal causation principles
3. CThe surgeon was not liable, as the "but for" test failed
4. DThe patient consented, so there was no claim

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

A man is prevented from walking along part of a bridge closed for an event, but is free to go back the way he came. In Bird v Jones, the court held:

1. AThere was an assault, because he was blocked
2. BThere was no false imprisonment, because his freedom was not totally restricted
3. CThere was false imprisonment, because he could not continue the way he wanted to go
4. DThere was false imprisonment, because the bridge was public