Duty of care in English law
In English tort law, an individual may owe a duty of care to another, in order to ensure that they do not suffer any unreasonable harm or loss. If such a duty is found to be breached, a legal liability will be imposed upon the tortfeasor to compensate the victim for any losses they incur. The idea of individuals owing strangers a duty of care – where beforehand such duties were only found from contractual arrangements – developed at common law, throughout the 20th century. The doctrine was significantly developed in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson,[1] where a woman succeeded in establishing a manufacturer of ginger beer owed her a duty of care, where it had been negligently produced. Following this, the duty concept has expanded into a coherent judicial test, which must be satisfied in order to claim in negligence.
Generally, a duty of care arises where one individual or group undertakes an activity which could reasonably harm another (or themselves), either physically, mentally, or economically. This includes common activities such as driving (where physical injury may occur), as well as specialised activities such as dispensing reliant economic advice (where economic loss may occur). Where an individual has not created a situation which may cause harm, no duty of care exists to warn others of dangerous situations or prevent harm occurring to them; such acts are known as pure omissions, and liability may only arise where a prior special relationship exists to necessitate them.
Liability of public bodies[edit]
An organisation or public body may be found to have committed a negligent act in the same way that an individual may; however, for policy reasons, the duty of care which a public body may owe is different from that of private individuals or organisations.[55] Generally, it is where the type of harm involved is not of a physical kind, or a negligent omission is committed, that the formulation of a duty of care differs.
Traditionally, courts have rejected claims that the police owe a duty of care to victims of crime. In Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, no duty of care was found to exist between the police and Jacqueline Hill, one of the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper. This lack of duty of care has been affirmed in a number of other cases both on the grounds of lack of proximity (a test required in all formulations of the doctrine of duty of care) and on the grounds of it being poor public policy.[56][57]
In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom found that the failure to properly investigate allegations of sexual assault against two women by John Worboys amounted to a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights, and that conspicuous or substantial errors in investigating serious crimes would give rise to similar breaches of human rights law.[58] While this does not establish a duty of care under tort law, it does provide an alternative route to compensation for victims.