Torts Ii Question Paper
Torts Ii
Course:Bachelors Of Law
Institution: Jomo Kenyatta University Of Agriculture And Technology question papers
Exam Year:2012
JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
SPECIAL/ SUPPLEMENTARY YEAR 1 SEMESTER II EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF COMMERCE
LSC 2108: TORTS II
DATE: AUGUST 2012
TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: ANSWER QUESTION ONE AND ANY OTHER TWO QUESTIONS
QUESTION ONE
Karma Construction Company Ltd. (KCC) consults you for advice pertaining to to recent accidents suffered by its employees. First, Caroli, a mason, was struct by a falling trowel while working on the construction of a school. The construction Act requires that each entrant onto a construction site must be supplied with a hard hat. KCC had supplied hard hats in a sufficient quantity to cover its employees but there had been a visit from a Ministerial delegation that day and some of the hats had been borrowed to accommodate them. Caroli decided to work without a hat and was hit on the head by the trowel which fell from the pocket of a fellow workman on the scaffold above. Workmen had been instructed to keep all tools in their work-belts and not elsewhere. Secondly, Randy, the firm’s accountant, recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Randy had complained for overwork previously, even though he displayed no overt signs of stress. The assistant provided for him to be turned out to be ignorant of the most basic accounting principles and this served only to double Randy’s workload. As a result, Randy’s home life became affected and another source of stress. Last week, while trying to complete the company’s accounts for the financial year, Randy, who was easily susceptible to stress by nature, suffered a nervous financial year. Randy, who was easily susceptible to stress by nature, suffered a nervous breakdown. Advise karma Construction Limited. (30 marks)
QUESTION TWO
Mark, a reporter for the Daily Journal, a newspaper with wide circulation in all parts of Kenya, is sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Neal’s medical clinic in Marley Street. He sees Opiyo barge into Dr. Neal’s examination room and seconds later, he hears a loud, angry voice- “you criminal, you overcharged my wife for a simple procedure because she did ot give into your adulterous demands. You are nothing but a rapist, a pervert and a modem-day Al Capone*”!
Opiyo then emerges from the room and leaves the premises. In his column in the Daily Journal next day, Mark writes that “ some local doctors are not above breaching the Hippocratic oath as anyone who was in a certain Marley Street Clinic yesterday would affirm. Some professionals really should know better”. Four doctors, two vests and three lawyers have offices on Marley Street.
Opiyo reports his allegation by letters to the Member of Parliament for his constituency and to the president of the National Medical Council (NMC). The MP pinpoints Dr. Neal as the culprit during debate on the national health service in Parliament the next week, and when interviewed later on the steps of the chamber, he insists that he stands by his statement. The president of th NMC shows Opiyo’s letter to his wife and to his medical partner.
Advise the partners (20 marks)
QUESTION THREE
(a) Explain the nature of vicarious liability for negligent acts or omissions.
AND
(b) Critically discuss whether it is fair and reasonable to impose vicarious liability.
QUESTION FOUR
“ Just as the likelihood of harm effects the standard of care demanded, so to does the magnitude of that harm”.
Discuss this statement with regard to modern negligence law and illustrate your answer by reference to decided cases. (20 marks)
QUESTION FIVE (DISCUSS ANY TWO)
1. Discuss critically Lord Atkin’s concept of the general duty of care and the neighbor principle in Donoghue V Stevenson, in light of contemporary negligence law.
2. Analyze and discuss the judgment of the House of Lords in Hunter v Canary Wharf with regard to the ruling that a claimant must have a sufficient interest in land to sue in private nuisance.
3. Critically evaluate the substance and scope of the defence of a Reynolds privilege and assess the extent to which it could be categorized as either a variant of qualified privilege or a new defence to an allegation of defamation.
4. Compare and contrast the torts of trespass to goods and conversion than for trespass to goods?
(20 marks)
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