LL2002: LAW OF TORT LL2002R

LL2002: LAW OF TORT LL2002R:  LAW OF TORT ASSESSMENT FOR

FIRST SITS/RESIT CANDIDATES

Assessment Submission Deadline:

10am on Wednesday 20tMay (British Summer Time)

THIS ASSESSMENT IS DESIGNED TO TAKE TWO HOURS

•    Please answer TWO Questions. No credit will be given for attempting any further questions.

•    Please complete your answers electronically in a Word document including (a) the course number/name and (b) your candidate number. For each question you attempt, please clearly state the question number.

•    Please do not include your name or Student ID Number anywhere on your work to ensure your work is marked confidentially.

•    Word Limit: The suggested word count for this assessment is 2000 words. You may, if you wish, write up to 2400 words in total. You will not be penalised for longer than-2400-word answers but work above the word count will not be marked.

•    Referencing: You are not expected to include long quotations or include a bibliography. The assignment should be written in your own words, except for quotations. You should identify quotations using quotation marks, and give the source using the author name and year, or the case name and year.

•    Academic Misconduct:  We will be checking assessments for academic misconduct as for all coursework assessments and any suspected offences will be investigated. Please remember:

•   The work submitted is expected to be your own work and only your work.

You may not ask for help with the assessments from any source.

•   Avoid plagiarism: Don’t copy and paste someone else’s words into your

notes or drafts; including your own words from previous assignments.

•    Avoid collusion: You must not give help to anyone else, including sending them any parts of the questions or copies of your solutions, even after the 23 hour time period has finished.

•   Submitting your Work:

•   All answers should be submitted in a single document.

•   Please save your answer with a filename in the format: Course

Code_Candidate Number e.g. LL2002_2000001

•    Your document must be submitted through Turnitin using the submission links in the module Moodle page.

•    If you are submitting a document with photos or diagrams you can reduce the size of document by converting this to a PDF document - this

will make the upload process quicker and easier.

If you have any questions in relation to completing the assessment or if you are having any difficulty completing this assessment on time please e-mail us at: LSS-School@rhul.ac.uk

Page 1 of 3                                                                   2019-20


Answer TWO questions.

1.   The courts are reluctant to allow claims for pure economic loss. Critically discuss.

2.    Eliza owns a shop and lives in the flat above her shop. Advise her in the following scenarios:

a. Hamilton enters Eliza’s shop and notices that Eliza has a ceramic ornament for sale. Hamilton has several from the same collection, but one has a cracked handle which has been glued back on. The next day, Hamilton returns to the store and swaps his ceramic ornament for the one in the shop.

b. Burr, Eliza’s neighbour, parks his car on Eliza’s driveway every day, as he does not have a driveway. In retaliation, Eliza has encouraged her dog to chase Burr’s cat, including into Burr’s garden.

c.  Lafayette, Eliza’s other neighbour, is a proud Frenchman and plays the national anthem at top volume every night before he goes to sleep. The music is so loud Eliza cannot sleep until after Lafayette has gone

to bed. This problem also affects her sisters, Peggy and Angelica, who are staying with Eliza for three months while their house is renovated. Advise the parties as to any claims or liabilities they may have.

3.  Evan is driving safely along a busy high street when Connor runs across the road in front of his car. Evan swerves to avoid Connor, and hits a lamppost. He breaks his arm and later suffers flashbacks of the event. Jared, who was behind Evan, moves out to overtake without looking and hits Connor, who is severely injured. Jared is thrown from his motorbike hits his head. Because his helmet was not fastened, he breaks his neck and is paralysed from the waist down. Zoe, Connor’s sister, was on the footpath when Evan swerved and was terrified that she was going to be killed. She was physically unharmed, but the accident triggers a relapse of her ME, a chronic illness, and she cannot take up her lucrative job offer at Eversheds. Mrs Murphy, who is Connor and Zoe’s mother, works across the road, and witnesses the whole incident through the security cameras, where she was watching for Connor to drop off a parcel to her. She develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has to take a leave of absence from work. Advise the parties.

NEXT PAGE


4.  Madam Morrible, the owner of Oz Country House, opens the house to visitors for one week every summer. She charges £10 admission to the house and grounds. The visitors are asked to only use yellow brick paths, and there are frequent signs reminding parents to keep an eye on their children and not let them wander off. Nessa and Elphaba are visiting the House when Nessa’s wheelchair gets caught on an uneven stone in the path. She is thrown from her chair and the unexpected weight change causes Elphaba to fall backwards, where she lands in a muddy puddle. Her expensive red shoes are ruined. Meanwhile Fiyero, a young child who is visiting with his parents, is fascinated by the plants in the garden. He wanders into the garden and eats some green plants, but they turn out to be poisonous and he dies. Glinda sneaks onto the property without paying the charge by climbing over a fence into a field of goats. She does not see the sign which says ‘Beware of Goats’ and is seriously injured when a goat butts her and knocks her down.

Advise the parties.

5.  Agatha is a journalist who is trying to make a name for herself in the national news. She publishes a series of articles in the local newspaper filled with rumours. She claims that Bruce, a professional chef, is forcing his staff to work unpaid overtime, and encourages her readers to boycott his restaurant. His profits in the month after the article is published are at an all-time low. Agatha also publishes an article claiming that Jennifer, a school teacher, has faked her qualifications. She follows this claim up by standing outside the gates of Ms Honey’s school and telling passers-by that Ms Honey stole a doll from Agatha. Finally, she publishes an article insinuating that a local car salesman is lying about the age and history of the cars he sells. She does not name anyone directly, but does make reference to a ‘local, father of two, car salesman’. When she is called to Parliament to speak about car sales and dishonesty, she claims that Mr Wormwood runs odometers backwards to misrepresent the number of miles cars have done and puts sawdust in the engines of cars to make them run smoother. Magnus, Mr Wormwood’s rival car salesman, who also has two children, has seen a drop in his profits lately.

Advise the parties as to whether they have any claims in defamation.

6.  The decision in Muhamad v WM Morrison Ltd [2016] UKSC 11 expanded the boundaries of vicarious liability beyond what is reasonable.

Evaluate this statement.

END