Tort law worksheet with answers

Trespass to land means:

1. ASelling land without a contract
2. BEntering or remaining on another's land without permission
3. CMaking noise on your own land
4. DBuilding a house on your own land

Statements made by MPs during debates in the UK Parliament are protected in defamation by:

1. AAbsolute privilege
2. BQualified privilege
3. CThe defence of honest opinion
4. DThe public interest defence

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

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

A milkman, forbidden by his employer to give lifts, lets a boy ride on his float to help deliver milk. The boy is injured by the milkman's negligence. In Rose v Plenty, the employer was:

1. ALiable only if the milkman had no insurance
2. BNot liable, because the boy was a trespasser
3. CNot liable, because giving lifts had been expressly forbidden by the employer
4. DVicariously liable, because the boy was helping with the employer's work

Contractors negligently cut a power cable, damaging the melt in a factory's furnace and stopping further production. In Spartan Steel v Martin, the factory recovered:

1. ANothing, because all the losses were economic and none was physical damage
2. BThe damaged melt and its lost profit, but not profit on further melts
3. COnly the cost of repairing the cable
4. DAll profits lost while the power was off

Workmen leave an open manhole with paraffin lamps. A boy knocks a lamp in, causing an unexpected explosion and burns. In Hughes v Lord Advocate, the defendants were:

1. ALiable only for half of the damage
2. BNot liable, because the boy was a trespasser
3. CLiable, because burns were a foreseeable type of harm
4. DNot liable, because the explosion was unforeseeable

An internal auditor with a grudge against his employer leaks staff payroll data online. In WM Morrison Supermarkets v Various Claimants (2020), the Supreme Court held the employer:

1. ALiable only to staff whose data was used for fraud
2. BVicariously liable, as he had access to the data through his job
3. CVicariously liable, as data breaches are strict liability
4. DNot vicariously liable, as he was pursuing a personal vendetta

Fumes from a copper smelting works damage trees and shrubs on a nearby estate in an industrial area. In St Helen's Smelting v Tipping, the House of Lords held:

1. AThere was a nuisance only if the fumes were noisy
2. BThere was no nuisance, because the character of the industrial area excused the fumes and the damage
3. CThe claimant came to the nuisance, so lost
4. DThe character of the locality was irrelevant, because there was physical damage to property