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Neighbour Principle
Common law held that individuals must take reasonable care of others and this has
been borne out over the years by a number of important cases. The first of these
highlighted the importance of the neighbor principle and established negligence as an
independent tort (Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932)).
This case involved a female consuming a soft drink in which was found the remains of a
decomposed snail. She was subsequently ill and sued the manufacturer. In this case the
judge said that reasonable care must be taken to avoid acts or omissions which, with
reasonable foresight, you would know would be likely to injure your neighbour. This is
known as the neighbour principle. Thus the test whether someone is a neighbour, in the
legal sense, can be established if it can be reasonably foreseen that the act may cause
harm to them.
In health and safety terms the same concept applies to employers, who are also under a
common law duty of care towards their employees and others.
Vicarious Liability
Vicarious liability occurs under civil law only and is based on the fact that if an
employee, whilst acting in the course of his employment, negligently injures another
employee or the employee of another employer, his employer, rather than that
employee, will be liable for that injury.
Vicarious liability rests on the employer simply as a result of the fact that he is the
employer and is deemed to have ultimate control over his employees, i.e. the Master and
Servant relationship.
Contributory Negligence
Contributory negligence is a defence both to an action in negligence and breach of
statutory duty. In general, however, the carelessness of employees as claimants is
treated more leniently than the negligence of employers, even where liability rests upon
the vicarious responsibility of the employer for the negligence of another employee.
Flower v Ebbw Vale Steel Iron & Coal Ltd [1936]
Staveley Iron & Chemical Co v Jones [1956]
Employer
liability was covered by the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act
1969
and various amending regulations but was brought up to date on 1 January 1999
by the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998. Amongst other
provisions, the sum insured was raised from 2 million to 5 million; inspectors were
empowered to require production of past certificates as well as the current one; and
certificates are now required to be kept for 40 years. It is also possible for an employee
to be sued instead of, or as well as, his employer where the employee has been
negligent.
