LPL4802 – LAW OF DELICT PRACTICE
EXAM AND STUDYGUIDE LATEST 2026
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT DETAILED
ANSWERS
Delict - Correct Answers -Wrongful conduct
The act of a person which in a wrongful and culpable way causes loss, damage to another.
Requirements of Delict - Correct Answers -Act. Wrongfulness. Fault. Causation. Damage
Delict versus Crime - Correct Answers -Delict- protects public interest. The aggrieved party
institutes the action. Objective- claim damages as compensation. No attempted Delict
Crime - Correct Answers -Protects public interest. State prosecutes. Punish the criminal. Can
have attempted crime.
Conduct - Correct Answers -Voluntary human commission or omission
Wrongfulness - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -Between the act of the defendant and damage suffered by
the plaintiff. The act must have caused the damage or loss.
Damage - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -Onus is on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant has
acted voluntarily and therefor not mechanically
, Antecedent liability - Correct Answers -Reasonable man would have foreseen the possibility of
causing harm while in a state of automatism
Wrongfulness - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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.
RAF versus Mtati - Correct Answers -The nasciturus fiction
Does not always offer a solution
Bona mores test - Correct Answers -The legal convictions of the
Community as the basic test for wrongfulness. Steenkamp
Basic question - Correct Answers -Whether according to the legal convictions of the community
and light of all the circumstances of the case the defendant infringed the interests of the
plaintiff in a reasonable or unreasonable manner.
Determination of wronfulness - Correct Answers -Was there an infringement of a legally
protected interest. Act must have a harmful consequence. If the interest was prejudiced legal
norms are used. To determine if it occurred in a legally reprehensible manner.
EXAM AND STUDYGUIDE LATEST 2026
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT DETAILED
ANSWERS
Delict - Correct Answers -Wrongful conduct
The act of a person which in a wrongful and culpable way causes loss, damage to another.
Requirements of Delict - Correct Answers -Act. Wrongfulness. Fault. Causation. Damage
Delict versus Crime - Correct Answers -Delict- protects public interest. The aggrieved party
institutes the action. Objective- claim damages as compensation. No attempted Delict
Crime - Correct Answers -Protects public interest. State prosecutes. Punish the criminal. Can
have attempted crime.
Conduct - Correct Answers -Voluntary human commission or omission
Wrongfulness - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -Between the act of the defendant and damage suffered by
the plaintiff. The act must have caused the damage or loss.
Damage - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -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 Answers -Onus is on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant has
acted voluntarily and therefor not mechanically
, Antecedent liability - Correct Answers -Reasonable man would have foreseen the possibility of
causing harm while in a state of automatism
Wrongfulness - Correct Answers -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 Answers -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.
RAF versus Mtati - Correct Answers -The nasciturus fiction
Does not always offer a solution
Bona mores test - Correct Answers -The legal convictions of the
Community as the basic test for wrongfulness. Steenkamp
Basic question - Correct Answers -Whether according to the legal convictions of the community
and light of all the circumstances of the case the defendant infringed the interests of the
plaintiff in a reasonable or unreasonable manner.
Determination of wronfulness - Correct Answers -Was there an infringement of a legally
protected interest. Act must have a harmful consequence. If the interest was prejudiced legal
norms are used. To determine if it occurred in a legally reprehensible manner.
