Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 12

Business Law - Essay Example Negligence has been defined as conduct that falls below the standard established by law which tends to protect other against any unreasonable risk of harm being caused. The main elements that require proving for a claim of negligence are firstly the establishment of a duty of care, second a breach of that duty, thirdly causation in respect of the breach, proximity and damages caused as a result of the breach. Each of these would be discussed and then an analysis of the elements in respect of the issue would be made. The most important authority which led to the establishment of the principle of negligence is the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson1 under which the final consumer, that is, Donoghue, while consuming a ginger beer found a decomposed snail in the bottle and went on to claim negligence against the manufacturer. In the case the most important discussion was whether the manufacturer owed a duty of care to the final consumer, this question was important as in the current situation the ginger bottle went through different people before reaching the final consumer. Thus the question was of the manufacturer’s duty and the subsequent negligence committed by him when the final consumer consumed the ginger beer, even though the beer had been purchased from a retailer. The main arguments by the manufacturer were that he should not be held liable because the final consumer did not purchase the beer from him. It was found that even though the beer was not brought from the manufacturer, he owed a duty of care to the final consumer and had been negligent.Lord Atkin’s speech in this respect, whereby he laid down the neighbor principle is considered to be vital. The neighbor principle was said to be the fact that a person must take all reasonable care so as to avoid acts or omissions which if seen with reasonable foreseeability are likely to cause an injury to that person’s neighbour. Lord Atkin defined a neighbour to be a