Task:
Read the following two scenarios and explain for each scenario, all the torts that have been committed, any arguments that can be used as a defence or to limit liability, and likely liability which will be imposed on each of the parties.
Scenario 1
Ramos, a local politician, read a newspaper article by Bronsky, an influential columnist writing in the evening paper, in which Bronsky mistakenly associated Ramos with some well-known people recently charged with illegal drug distribution. Bronsky had been given the information by a reliable source who had given him accurate information in the past, but the source had Ramos, the politician, mixed up with another person of the same name.
Unaware that an honest mistake had been made, Ramos was so infuriated by the article that he immediately went to the newspaper and forced his way into the building where Bronsky worked, kicked in the door to his, went over the desk, pointed his finger at him and yelled, “If you weren’t such a rotten little runt, I’d smash your face in.”
In a panic, Bronsky grabbed a heavy paperweight off his desk and when Ramos had his head turned as the other people in the office rushed in, Bronsky hit him over the head with the weight. Ramos was seriously injured.
Scenario 2
James was operating his cabin cruiser with his family a kilometre off the coast when he needed to go below to prepare a meal. He left his 12 year-old son to drive the boat. While James was below, the cruiser struck a small dark-cloured rubber dinghy which contained Ned, a driver in a wetsuit; who was resting between dives that he had been making in the area.
There were no marker buoys and the dinghy was difficult to see in the swells. (Ned’s diving companions had taken their boat to the nearest settlement to refill their tanks.) Ned suffered a leg injury in the collision. As soon as James heard the screams, he came up from below, stopped the boat and rescued Ned. It was clear that Ned leg was broken. James took Ned as quickly as possible back to the town, where Ned was immediately transferred to the local hospital.
Ned was admitted and examined by Dr. Green. The doctor noted and treated Ned for a broken ankle, but failed to notice that the leg had also been injured above the knee where a small bone protruded from the skin. Because of this failure the wound became infected and it became necessary to amputate the leg. Green was not a surgeon and so gave clear instructions to Dr. Blade, the local surgeon as to what was required.
In the operating room Blade got mixed-up and amputated the wrong leg. When the error was discovered, Blade then amputated the correct leg. Ned then sued the owner of the boat, his son who was driving at the time of the accident, Dr. Green, Blade and also the hospital for the injuries he suffered.