Tortuous Liability

May 2007.

TASK 1'…. Whether you are a new employee or not, all workers are personally liable for any breach of Health and Safety rules…'Explain whether you think the Union will accept this statement and why.

This statement was seen in the draft employment contract that was to be submitted to the Trade Union from Drakers. To understand the validity of this statement I will first compare general tort liability with contractual liability and discuss what the advantages are of using tort over contract. A discussion of different types of tort, general, strict and vicarious, will follow this. The latter will be discussed with regards to the Employer's liability and the Health and Safety At Work Act (1974 & 1984).

A Tort is a legal term that means a civil wrong and it is separate from Contract.

The definition of Tort is not easy as it covers a broad range of situations; it is mainly to do with a person's responsibility to others.

Strawberry Tort

Maman a tort

Dobos tort

•A tort is a breach of duty, which is fixed by law. Someone behaves tortuously if they harm someone's body, property, and legal rights or breach a duty owed under statutory law.

The law allows the victim to claim damages (money) if they can prove they have been harmed, when a tort has been committed, (this is to compensate them for harm done) in some tort they only have to prove that the tort has been committed e.g. in Trespass.

Tort has developed as a system based on fault liability it is case written and the level of proof needed is 'in all probability'. Proving the fault is a requirement of most torts and can sometimes be very difficult it is based on the principle that that it punishes the wrongdoer but this is in practice does...