2025[DETAILED QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS]
Delict - Correct Answer--Wrongful conduct
The act of a person which in a wrongful and culpable way causes loss, damage to
another.
Requirements of Delict - Correct Answer--Act. Wrongfulness. Fault. Causation.
Damage
Delict versus Crime - Correct Answer--Delict- protects public interest. The aggrieved
party institutes the action. Objective- claim damages as compensation. No attempted
Delict
Crime - Correct Answer--Protects public interest. State prosecutes. Punish the
criminal. Can have attempted crime.
Conduct - Correct Answer--Voluntary human commission or omission
Wrongfulness - Correct Answer--For a liability to follow an act prejudice must be
caused in a wrongful or unreasonable manner. Without wrongfulness defendant
cannot be held liable.
Liability for an omission - Correct Answer--Liability follows when the omission was
in fact wrongful, where a legal duty rested on the defendant to act positively to
prevent harm from occurring and he failed to comply with that duty.
,Fault - Correct Answer--Legally blameworthy for having acted wrongfully or did not
conform to the standard of care required by law and thus caused damage through
negligence. Fault - intention and negligence
Causal connection - Correct Answer--Between the act of the defendant and damage
suffered by the plaintiff. The act must have caused the damage or loss.
Damage - Correct Answer--The plaintiff must have suffered damage. Damage can
take two forms. Patrimonial loss - Damnum iniuria datum, that is the reduction of
financial power or injury to personality - iniuria the infringement of an aspect of
personality - good name.
Elements of Conduct - Correct Answer--Human act - even if an animal is used
Human act is present. A juristic person can act through its agents and be held
delictually liable for its actions
Gijzen - Correct Answer--Can occur without there being an act on the part of the
defendant in the case of land subsistence cases. Such an act must be wrongful. An
act and its consequences may be separated from each other, but there always has to
be an act.
Voluntary Conduct - Correct Answer--The act must be performed
Voluntarily, the wrongdoer must have had control over his muscular movements. It
does not have to be willed or desired State versus Russell.
, Commission & Omission - Correct Answer--Conduct can be in the form of Omission
or Commission. Liability for an omission is in general more restricted than liability for
a positive act.
Defense of automatism - Correct Answer--Someone acted mechanically- sleep,
unconscious, fainting, fit, absolute compulsion, if these are present a person is
incapable of controlling his bodily movement- purely mechanical action.
Sane Automatism - Correct Answer--Onus is on the plaintiff to prove that the
defendant has acted voluntarily and therefor not mechanically
Antecedent liability - Correct Answer--Reasonable man would have foreseen the
possibility of causing harm while in a state of automatism
Wrongfulness - Correct Answer--It's a dual investigation: only delictually wrongful
when it has as its consequences the factual infringement of an individual interest. An
act and its
Consequences are always separated by time and Space.
Pinchin Versus Santam Insurance - Correct Answer--Pregnant woman involved in a
car accident, caused by the defendants negligence. Child suffered brain
Damage.
Compensation was
Claimed for the child, judge there was
No proof that the accident caused brain damage.