Law of Tort - Past exam and reports fe-1 PDF

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LAW OF TORT

PAST EXAMINATION PAPERS AND REPORTS

Reproduced under licence from the Law Society of Ireland

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Contents March 2019 Examination Paper......................................................................................................4 October 2018 Examination Paper....................................................................................................7 October 2018 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................10 March 2018 Examination Paper....................................................................................................12 March 2018 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................16 October 2017 Examination Paper..................................................................................................19 October 2017 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................23 March 2017 Examination Paper....................................................................................................25 March 2017 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................29 October 2016 Examination Paper..................................................................................................33 October 2016 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................37 March 2016 Examination Paper....................................................................................................40 March 2016 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................44 October 2015 Examination Paper..................................................................................................46 October 2015 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................50 March 2015 Examination Paper....................................................................................................52 March 2015 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................57 September 2014 Examination Paper..............................................................................................59 September 2014 Examiner’s Report..............................................................................................63 April 2014 Examination Paper......................................................................................................65 April 2014 Examiner’s Report.......................................................................................................69 March 2014 Examination Paper....................................................................................................72 March 2014 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................76 October 2013 Examination Paper..................................................................................................78 October 2013 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................82 March 2013 Examination Paper....................................................................................................84 March 2013 Examination Report...................................................................................................88 October 2012 Examination Paper..................................................................................................91 October 2012 Examiner’s Report..................................................................................................95 March 2012 Examination Paper....................................................................................................97 March 2012 Examiner’s Report...................................................................................................101 October 2011 Examination Paper................................................................................................103 October 2011 Examiner’s Report................................................................................................107 March 2011 Examination Paper...................................................................................................109 March 2011 Examiner’s Report...................................................................................................112 October 2010 Examination Paper................................................................................................114 October 2010 Examiner’s Report................................................................................................118

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March 2010 Examination Paper..................................................................................................120 April 2010 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................124 October 2009 Examination Paper................................................................................................126 October 2009 Examiner’s Report................................................................................................130 April 2009 Examination Paper....................................................................................................132 April 2009 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................136 October 2008 Examination Paper................................................................................................138 October 2008 Examiner’s Report................................................................................................142 April 2008 Examination Paper....................................................................................................144 April 2008 Examiner’s Report.....................................................................................................148

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TORT LAW March 2019 Examination Paper QUESTION ONE Jeremy operated a Tractor ride attraction in his local village on behalf of Rustic Tourism DAC. Simply put, he charged people to ride on a trailer attached to a small tractor. As was company policy, before the ride began Jeremy gave a safety talk where he emphasised a number of points, including insisting that everyone should stay seated and keep their arms inside the trailer when in motion. Jeremy knew from experience that they were unlikely to pay any attention to the safety talk in much the same way that no one paid attention to the safety demonstration on planes. During the ride, one of the passengers, Theresa, constantly stood up and reached out in a vain attempt to grab any low hanging apples that they passed. Towards the end of the ride, Boris jumped out in front of the tractor to scare Jeremy as he thought this was hilarious. Jeremy was in fact scared and swerved the tractor, which was a complete overreaction on his part. As a result, while Theresa was standing, she was thrown from the trailer and began screaming loudly. Jeremy turned around to see what happened at which point he ran over Boris who was rushing to Theresa. Boris was badly injured. Critically discuss what can be said to have caused Boris’ injuries according to the law of tort. QUESTION TWO Jane is a recently qualified consultant in emergency medicine, after having spent about ten years learning her profession in various Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments in hospitals throughout the world. Her previous hospital, before she joined her current hospital, was focused on alternative medication strategies rather than traditional health management. Her current hospital however does not approve of using medical strategies that are not approved by the local Medical Board, although it maintains strict professional autonomy for doctors in the provision of medical services. John is admitted to the A&E department of Jane’s hospital, suffering from intense pain and high temperature. Jane believes this is an acute emergency and decides to prescribe an herbal based alternative remedy whose primary purpose is to slow heartrate in elderly people. However, Jane is using this drug for its side-effects, namely it reduces sensation to pain and lowers body temperature. Unfortunately, John had a violent allergic reaction to the medication and slipped into a coma, suffering brain damage. Advise Jane as to any potential liability in professional negligence under the law of tort.

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QUESTION THREE Mary was a former girlfriend of Joseph but the relationship had ended badly. Joseph had moved on and was now about to marry Halsey. To show that there were no hard feelings on Joseph’s part, he invited Mary to the wedding reception, which was to take place in a five star hotel. Mary was incensed and believed that Joseph was trying to insult her. Accordingly, the night before the wedding, she threw a mannequin, dressed in clothes similar to those used by Mary, into the swimming pool of the hotel. In the morning she called Joseph and told him that she had taking pills and was going to drown herself in the hotel pool. Joseph raced down to the pool and, in his distressed state; he believed that Mary had already drowned and that he was too late. As a result, Joseph smashed his fist into a glass mirror on the wall, cutting his hands badly. Just then, Mary appeared, laughed out loud and said “I am fine, that is just a mannequin which represents what you have done to me on the inside. I hate you!” At that Joseph throws up and subsequently suffers from a constant state of anxiety and is prone to severe panic attacks. Advise Mary as to any potential liability in tort law that she may have. QUESTION FOUR Too often, courts have extended, restricted or modified tort law doctrines without paying due regard to the overall purpose that tort law is designed to achieve. A choice has to be made between the compensatory aim of tort law and its role in behaviour modification. Critically discuss this statement by outlining the fundamental objectives of tort law and illustrating this through relevant case law. QUESTION FIVE By Statute, a local authority should clear regional roads using snow ploughs when there is on average an excess of 2cm of snow that remains on the ground for 30 minutes or more. A local authority in the midlands measures snowfall at its head office only. Based on that measurement, it makes the decision whether or not to send out the snow ploughs. This was so despite the fact that the local authority was aware that snowfall levels throughout the county could vary significantly from place to place On January 14th, at around 4pm it began to snow heavily for about an hour, at the end of which the snow at the head office of the local authority measured 1.5cm. Nonetheless, since the official measurement was less than

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2cm the decision was made not to activate the snow ploughs but instead one of their employees was to monitor the level if it was to start snowing again. At around 4am the following morning it began snowing again but no one checked the measurement. In fact, later on, it was established that the snow measurement only ever reached a maximum of 1.95cm. In fact, elsewhere in the county show depth levels were considerably in excess of 2cm. Maddie was driving to work the following morning when she careered off the road because the snow had not been cleared. Advise Maddie as to any potential liability for negligence in the law of tort by the local authority.

QUESTION SIX The primary duty owed by an employer to their employee is the provision of a safe place of work. However, given the increasingly varied places of work, including working from home, in future the emphasis will remove towards the provision of a safe system of work. Critically discuss this statement in the context of an employer’s liability to their employee under the law of tort.

QUESTION SEVEN On February 10 th a small but vocal crowd assembled in the main street and began to protest that as left handed people they were being discriminated against by the majority of the population who were right handed. As left handed people they were constantly being excluded from jobs, promotions, and various other advantages enjoyed by the right handed majority. During the course of the demonstration, a counter demonstration emerged from the Silent Majority who insisted that things were getting ridiculous about all this equality drivel. Suddenly, a car driven by Don came barrelling down the street and headed directly into the original protesters, badly injuring Nancy. Nancy claimed that Don had made an attempt to run her over to silence her from speaking up for the left handed community. Don claims that it was nothing of the sort but that he simply had passed out from a panic attack when he thought that the protest might turn violent. Videos of Don’s actions have been posted anonymously on MugTube, a social video sharing site with the title “Don claims a panic attack but watch him try to silence left handed activist Nancy by deliberately running her down.

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Advise Don as to any potential liability for defamation by MugTube. QUESTION EIGHT The principles for the calculation of an award of damages in a tort action can often result in inadequate or inappropriate awards to tort victims. Critically discuss this statement paying particular attention to any relevant jurisprudence.

TORT LAW October 2018 Examination Paper QUESTION ONE A statement is defamatory if it “tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society.” Defamation Act 2009, s.2 Critically discuss this provision in the law on defamation. QUESTION TWO Alan is the landlord of a commercial building that he has been trying to rent for some period of time, unfortunately without success. Eventually he leased the building to the ‘Children of the Stars’, an organisation which believes that humans are directly descended from aliens. They believe that they have a destiny to notify their alien ancestors when the human race is ready to return to their planet of origin. Apparently the Children of the Stars do this through ritual chanting between sunrise and sunset at pre-determined times during that period, although these times vary from day to day depending on the alignment of the stars. The aim of this chanting, which is an integral element of their belief, is to attract the attention of their ancestors back to Earth. Although

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the ‘Children of the Stars’ have told Alan about this, he does not particularly care so long as they pay their rent. Darlene owns a coffee shop next door to Alan’s building and is finding that business is being severely affected because at times the chanting can be quite loud and people have told her that they cannot enjoy their coffee as a result of it. Advise Darlene as to whether she has any action against either Alan or the ‘Children of the Stars’ in nuisance. QUESTION THREE Sam, an old age pensioner, has become very distressed at the number of students from the local third level college who are using his back garden as a shortcut to their lectures. He has put several signs up stating “Trespassers will be prosecuted!”, “Enter this property at your own risk”” and “Active gun range: do not cross”. Unfortunately, they are not having any effect and several have been torn down by the students. Undeterred, Sam purchased an airsoft gun (a toy gun which fires small plastic balls) as well as a laser do sight, which when activated places a red laser dot on the target to ensure accurate shooting. Late one night, four students were crossing through Sam’s back garden when they were surprised to hear Sam shout at them: “Stand still! One move and I will shoot you dead.” One of the students, Laura, looked down to see a red laser dot on her chest. Panicked, Laura began to run, at which point Sam point Sam aimed the rifle away from Laura and towards a tin can he had hung from a tree. He then fired the small plastic pellet towards the tin can. When the pellet struck the tin can, Laura slipped and the pellet ricocheted from the can hitting her in the eye. Advise Laura as to whether she has an action for any intentional tort against Sam.

QUESTION FOUR Weed DAC was a natural herbal remedy company which has recently been taken over by Thermo Drugs DAC, a multinational drug company. Weed DAC’s largest selling product was “Head Banging Spacer” – a small blue pill which contained a potent caffeine extract designed to give an energy boost to those who take it. Thermo Drugs however does not believe that this is a suitable name for any of its products and has recently moved to rename “Head Banging Spacer” to “PowerZoom” with completely redesigned packaging which is not in the slightest bit similar to “Head Banging Spacer” but which is more in keeping with Thermo Drugs’ ethos and branding policy. However, market research has suggested that it would be beneficial to retain some reference to the old brand name and so, in small print, the

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phrase “formerly sold as Head Banging Spacer” has been included on the packet. Crack DAC, a rival to Weed DAC, has decided to take advantage of this and is now selling its own product using the name “Dead Banging Spacer” and packaging that is only slightly different to that of the original “Head Banging Spacer” packaging. It contains the following phrase in small print “not connected to PowerZoom or any related product.” Advise Thermo Drugs if they have any action in passing off against Crack DAC. QUESTION FIVE CrazyPlayTown owns and operates a crazy golf facility, which is divided into two distinct zones. There is a general zone which is designed for family outings and a specialist zone which is adult only. The adult only zone is a demanding course which requires a lot of effort and also places individuals at a degree of hazard and requires the wearing of safety equipment, specifically a helmet and padded clothing to the chest and legs. There is a 3 metre high wall that separates the two zones and prevents the crossing from one zone to another. However, at certain points along the wall, it drops to 1.5 metres but that is normally at points where the employees can observe what is happening. Max and Amelia are two teenagers who purchased tickets to enter the general zone only and when they thought no one was looking, they jumped over the lowest part of the wall and began playing in the adult zone. Subsequently Max and Amelia suffered injuries while playing the adult course, injuries which would have been avoided if they were over 21 and wearing the protective clothing. Advise CrazyPlayTown of any potential liability in tor as occupiers of the facility arising from these facts.

QUESTION SIX The imposition of vicarious liability requires that the act in question falls within the scope of employment, but in highly skilled professions it is often difficult to delineate what that actually means. Critically discuss this statement with reference to relevant case law.

QUESTION SEVEN

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ForkToast manufactures toasters. Their most recent product has been the “glass walled toaster.” It is sold under the tagline: “watch as it browns!” Essentially, this is a toaster which has glass panelled sides which enable the customer to watch their toast until it is toasted to perfection. As this is a novel technology, it comes with an extensive instruction booklet which reminds customers to ensure that they regularly clean the glass panels with a specific non-abrasive cleaner as abrasive cleaners could damage the glass. It is hugely popular and many people have purchased it. However the instruction booklet has been criticised as being too complex and requiring an exceptionally high standard of English. More rece...