Blo1105 Business Law- Civil Wrong Assessment Answers

Answers

1. Duty of care refers to such an obligation which a person A, owes to person B due to the acts being undertaken by person A, which have the possibility of resulting in harm or loss to person B. In case this duty of care is not fulfilled, the aggrieved party, i.e., Party B can make a civil claim against the Party A, for negligence, which denotes a breach of duty of care owing to harm being caused to part B. When it comes to the business owners, they are under the obligation of discharging duty of care in order to minimize the risks for the company, particularly in context of the organization being sued. There is a need for the businesses owners to take certain steps for ensuring this duty of care is upheld.

In this regard, there is a need to ensure that the premises where the consumers or the employees work are safe for them. In this regard, there is a need to keep the floors clean, which are not slippery or wet, where the chances of slipping can take place; keeping the machinery proper and well checked, in order to avoid the instance of a mishandling of machinery resulting in injury to the workers. There is also a need to properly train the staff so that their actions do not result in harm or loss to the consumers, as the principle of vicarious liability would make the business owner liable for the actions of the employee.

For minimizing the risks, the business owner has to take steps in ensuring that there is a safety plan for reducing the chances of occurrence of breach of duty of care and that the staff is well educated about the possibilities of claim being made against the business owners if the duty of care is not upheld. A proper risk management plan has to be drawn, which would not only identify the possible breaches of duty of care, but would also help in drawing a plan to avoid the occurrence of such incidents.

2. There are a number of differences between civil wrongs and criminal offences. A civil wrong is a wrongful act which results in the infringement of the individual’s private rights, whereas a criminal offence is such an act where the rights of the general public or that of the society as a whole are violated. So, a civil offence is deemed as an act disrupting the order and peace in the society. The examples of civil wrong include negligence and defamation; whereas the examples of criminal offence include robbery, murder and arson. Where a party is commits civil wrong, compensation has to be paid to the aggrieved party in form of damages; where as a person committing civil offence is punished in form of imprisonment.

When a criminal offence occurs, the prosecution is done by the Commonwealth or the State, but the chances of private prosecution also continues in certain rare cases; whilst in civil matters, the aggrieved party has to take the proceedings against the wrong doer before a civil court to be awarded damages for their losses. In order to make a successful case of criminal offence, there is a need for the presence of mens rea or guilty mind, in order to get the person sentenced, so the judgement of the wrongdoer plays a key role; however, in civil wrong, there is no need of establishing intention of the wrongdoer to injure the aggrieved party and is not a deciding factor in the wrongdoer being asked to compensate the aggrieved party for the injury. Hence, criminal offences are more serious in nature, in comparison to the civil wrongs.