Law of tort acts and omissions

Law of Tort

5th October 2022




Negligence: Acts and Omissions

 ACT: To do something
 OMISSION: Failure to act


 Lord Atkins reference to ‘acts and omissions’ in Donoghue V Stevenson
- D’s failure to protect C from harm caused by a 3rd party or by C themselves.



 Making things worse vs failing to make things better:
- You see a stranger drowning, you can swim and rescue them but you omit to act
and they drown and suffer a major harm.


General Rule on Omissions:
 Generally no liability for omissions – no duty to rescue.
 A general duty to rescue may violate liberty or endanger the rescuer.
 Cost and gravity irrelevant
 Affects good samaritism for fears of not meeting the ‘reasonable person’s standard’
during the rescue.
 There’s a distinction between infliction of harm and failure to prevent harm.


Lord Nicholls:
 Recognised legal position is that the bystander does not owe drowning
child/heedless pedestrian a duty to take steps to save him. (LORD NICHOLLS IN
STOVIN V WISE [1972] UKHL 15)


Exceptions to the General Rule:
 Omission can attract liability exceptionally:
- Voluntary conduct or agreement
- Statutory powers
- Special relationships
- Control of 3rd parties