header-logo header-logo

09 June 2011
Issue: 7469 / Categories: Case law , Law digest
printer mail-detail

Tort

Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Conarken Group Ltd; Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Farrell Transport Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 644, [2011] All ER (D) 288 (May)

It was settled law that forseeability and remoteness were to be considered together. Forseeability, as an abstract concept, was not determinative. An imaginative person might foresee extremely broad consequences as potentially resulting from his actions. In considering whether consequences were too remote to create a liability in negligence, reasonableness had a part to play.

Further, the fact that a claimant had contractually agreed with a third party the level of damages that it would pay, would not necessarily bind the tortfeasor. It was not open to a party to dictate to the whole world the extend to tortious liability and what was reasonably foreseeable and not too remote in order to achieve what it regarded as a satisfactory contract with a third party. It might lead to ever more ingenious attempts to attribute possible loses to a tort and would be inimical to the simple solution desired.
 

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Partner and Manchester office lead appointed head of family

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

DWF insurance services director appointed to Civil Justice Council

R3—Jodie Wildridge

R3—Jodie Wildridge

Kings Chambers barrister appointed chair of R3 Yorkshire

NEWS

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
back-to-top-scroll