Principles of Commercial Law
Assignment task 2
Issue
i. The main issue is whether Ruth can sue Keith for negligently repairing the staircase?
ii. Can Keith rely on the defence of contributory negligence to protect his interests?
The above raised issues can be resolved by understanding the relevant law.
Relevant Law
The law of negligence and the defence of contributory negligence are applicable in the given situation.
In the law of negligence, the defendant owns a duty of care against the plaintiff so that no loss is caused to such plaintiff because of the breach of duty of care by the defendant. In (Donoghue v Stevenson , 1932), the law was developed by Lord Atkin in 1932 and the ‘duty of care’ obligation is imposed upon the manufacturer against the consumers. So, in order to make any defendant liable under the law of negligence there are three basic rules which must be fulfilled. The same are: (Andrew & Michael, 2016)
i. Every defendant is imposed with the duty of care. The duty of care principle emphasis that when the defendant is carrying out any tasks or is foregoing any tasks then he must make sure that by his action no plaintiff is getting hurt and if any other person is getting hurt then he has a duty of care against such plaintiff and is held in (Gala v Preston , 1991).