Explain the origin and the concept of ‘Neighbour Principle’. Illustrate with decided cases the application of this principle.
Above all, I want to explain the ‘Neighbour Principle’’. Lord Atkin stated his famous neighbour Principle as was that 'You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour `.This is sometimes known as the neighbour principle.
By `neighbour`, Lord Atkin did not mean the person who lives next door, but `persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that i ought to have them in contemplation as being so affected when i am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question`. The test of foresee ability is objective; the court asks not what the defendant actually foresaw, but what a reasonable person could have been expected to foresee.
Neighbour principle is one of a kind of circumstance in Negligence. Negligence is the most important tort in modern law. It concerns breach of a legal duty to take care, with the result that damage is caused to the claimant. Torts other than negligence are normally identified by the particular interest of the claimant that protect. For example, nuisance protects against interference with the claimant's use and enjoyment of land, while defamation protects against damage to reputation.
`Negligence` is defined in Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort as `the breach of a legal duty to take care which results in damage, undesired by the defendant, to the plaintiff` .There is no one single definition of the word `tort` or tortious liability` that is acceptable to the author as being complete enough to tell a reader what `tort` or tortious liability` is all about. One of the better definitions is given by Winfield and reads as follow: ` tortious liability` arises from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by the law; this duty is towards persons generally and its breach