(New Zealand) Proximity in the law of negligence may consist of various forms of closeness – physical, circumstantial, causal or assumed: ‘It involves considering the relationship from the perspective of both the defendant and the claimant. At root, it will reflect ‘a balancing of the plaintiff’s moral claim to compensation for avoidable harm, and the defendant’s moral claim to be protected from an undue burden of legal responsibility’. As such it will inevitably overlap with considerations of justice between the parties.’
Judges:
Richardson J
Citations:
[1992] 2 NZLR 282
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004
The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it.
Held: There is a close link between the tests in law for proximity . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Negligence
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.194629