Hong Kong Law of Tort Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Hong Kong Law of Tort - Essay Example The mother, after witnessing the series of events, called her husband Ben, the stepfather of Elizabeth who came one hour after. He collapsed after seeing the bandages on Elizabeth. John, brother of Elizabeth after being notified, came one day after incident. All three persons, Lucy, Ben and John, suffered from shock after the incident. The idea of negligence is a product of hundred of years of law making. Until the present, the idea of negligence is still very much open to interpretations by the court. Although there have several attempts in the past to come up with criteria for negligence, the‘ categories of negligence are never closed.’1 Although the courts wanted a rule by which to judge conduct, they wanted the rule to be flexible enough so that the rule could be applied in various circumstances. Lord Atkin in Donoghue v Stevenson, the courts were initially quite reluctant to apply it as a criterion of general application in every case of negligence. Instead, they ad opted a case by case approach, thus restricting the imposition of liability to only few situations of negligence. 2 Negligence is generally defined as the failure to use ordinary care. A person fails to use ordinary care if he/she does something that a person of ordinary prudence would not have done under the same or similar circumstances. Failure to use ordinary care can also occur by omission, or failing to do something which a person of ordinary prudence would have done under the same or similar circumstances. Negligence, then, is a judgment of both acts and omissions.