Introduction

Tort Law – Business Law of Vaughan v Menlove

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Abstract

There are some incidents of harm which are done by any criminal. These cases may harm fellow citizens. These cases of torts, though arise due to negligence may be severe in nature and may harm fellow citizens. Sometimes the monetary loss may be huge. These tort cases are sometimes intentional or it may be unintentional and due to negligence. The cases of medical negligence fall under the jurisdiction of tort law. So, it can be said that the area of this law is vast. This paper aims to explain the Law 1507 created for the cases of tort in the light of the famous case of Vaughan v Menlove of 1837. This paper took the help of some scholarly works related to tort cases and cited in the reference.

Table of Contents

Introduction. 4

Discussion. 4

Conclusion. 6

Reference. 7

Introduction

In this discussion, Law 1507, that is is the tort law will be analysed and explained by the example of the case of Vaughan v Menlove in the year 1837. This is a civil law and covers the majority of the civil suits. This law is imposed on those people who are responsible for making harms to other persons, These harms include a vast area of offences, for example, any damaging of others property, physical as well as mental harm. This law imposes civil liability for not conducting a duty carefully and the person would be punished.

Discussion

This law came into existence following one typical incident of the negligence of a person called Menove in the year 1837. The person compiled packed hay piles and dumped these at the outer boundary of his property. There was a chimney for the prevention of any chances of ignition and outbreak of fire. Despite repeated warnings as well as alerts, he did not move the haystack. However, the haystack caught fire and the fire broke out and burned down the properties of his neighbour Voughan. Then Vaughan demanded compensation for the damages. Initially, Menove was thought to be liable for this incident as he did not act responsibly.

However, later he appealed for a plea considering his level of intelligence. However, the appeal was dismissed in the court of common pleas. This case is very significant for the students of law who are dealing with Law 1507, that is the tort law.

The term ‘tort’ is a French word that means wrong in English and tortum in Latin. Previously the word tort was in common use but nowadays tort is a legal term and subject matter of law for doing any wrong or harm to fellow citizens. A tort is generally related to the harm which is directly connected to the monetary loss of the other person.

The torts can be categorized into three broad segments, namely, strict liabilities, negligence and intentional torts. However, more specifically the tort liabilities have many categories as shown in the above chart, namely, fault, type of injury, type of damage and excuses. Faults are of three types, namely, strict liabilities, intentional and gross negligence. Injury can be divided into two parts, namely injury to a person or that to a property. The damages could be compensatory as well as punitive.

Excuses are of two types, namely, risk assumption and Plaintiff negligence. Law 1507 is a tort law following a mishap that was occurred in the year 1837. This is a civil law and covers the majority of the civil suits. This law is imposed on those people who are responsible for making harm to other persons, These harms include a vast area of misconduct that include any damaging of others property, physical as well as mental harm.

 This law imposes civil liability for not conducting a duty carefully and the person would be punished. In the cases of tort, it is important to consider whether the misconduct or harm that is responsible for any kind of loss measured in terms of loss of money of other fellow citizens is intentional or due to his negligence of the complete situation. In the case of Vaughan v Menlove, even though initially Menlove was announced to be guilty since he did not pay any attention to the repeated warning, afterwards he appealed the verdict of the trial court saying that the incident was unfortunate and he did not have a very high level of intelligence.

This case of Vaughan v Menlove is a typical case of a citation for the test of a reasonable person in the history of tort law. The terms ‘reasonable’ or ‘intelligence’ are very vague terms to explain negligence in the case of tort. Some pieces of research show that to avoid liabilities many people who are responsible for creating harm uses the model of machine learning (Hacker et al., 2020). Again, many relevant theories were used to explain this law by many researchers and found that this law does not have structural as well as juridical unity (Murphy, 2019).

A tort is generally related to the harm which is directly related to the monetary loss of the other person (Stoyanova, 2020). However, many issues create some confusion in this law. Especially, to explain the level of intelligence possessed by the person who commits the misconduct, it is difficult to prove whether the harm was intentional or due to negligence of that person. Medical negligence of any type comes under this law (Cheluvappa, &Selvendran, 2020). Moreover, there are many cases of sexual misconduct (Bismark et al., 2020). In these cases, it is difficult to prove the misconduct. Though these cases of sexual misconduct by the medical practitioner are rare, it is very essential to prevent these cases of such misconduct.

Finally, it can be said that the tort has several dimensions. One of those dimensions may be considered to be the dimension of fault. Like any other criminal law, this law of tort must need an act that is wrong and creates harm or monetary loss to other fellow citizens. However, unlike, any law of criminals, in this law of tort, there is noparticular intent. An innocent person might have a basis of tort. However, except for some special cases of strict liability, this law depends on the intensity of tort.

Conclusion

The above discussion shows that apart from the criminal acts there are some instances of misconduct of some people which creates harm to their fellow citizens. It can be proved from the typical example of a case of 19 century. That case is a famous case for citation of the LAW 1507 that is the Tort law. These cases of torts, though arise due to negligence may be severe in nature and may harm fellow citizens. Sometimes the monetary loss may be huge. Many of these tort cases are intentional. So, it can be said that the area of this law is vast.

References

Bismark, M. M., Studdert, D. M., Morton, K., Paterson, R., Spittal, M. J., &Taouk, Y. (2020). Sexual misconduct by health professionals in Australia, 2011–2016: a retrospective analysis of notifications to health regulators. Medical journal of Australia, 213(5), 218-224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50706

Cheluvappa, R., & Selvendran, S. (2020). Medical negligence-Key cases and application of legislation. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 57, 205-211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2020.07.017

Hacker, P., Krestel, R., Grundmann, S., & Naumann, F. (2020). Explainable AI under contract and tort law: legal incentives and technical challenges. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 28(4), 415-439. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10506-020-09260-6

Murphy, J. (2019). The Heterogeneity of Tort Law. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 39(3), 455-482. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqz008

Stoyanova, V. (2020). Common law tort of negligence as a tool for deconstructing positive obligations under the European convention on human rights. The International Journal of Human Rights, 24(5), 632-655. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2019.1663342