Personal injury

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1962

Principle established: Damages for a constructive total loss of a vehicle are measured by the pre-accident market value minus salvage value, plus the reasonable cost of hiring a substitute.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1962

Principle established: Damages for a vehicle destroyed as a constructive total loss equal its pre-accident market value less scrap value, plus the cost of hiring a temporary substitute for a reasonable period.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1963

Principle established: A magistrate must consider the whole of the evidence before refusing to commit an accused for trial, and any person aggrieved may appeal questions of law.

Ghana · 2024

Principle established: Review jurisdiction is sparingly exercised and will be dismissed if the applicant fails to demonstrate an exceptional circumstance or a fundamental error in the original judgment.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1963

Principle established: Even if a driver improperly enters a street, an oncoming driver remains under a duty of care to avoid a collision if it can be averted by ordinary care.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1963

Principle established: A driver owes a duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid a collision even when another vehicle has wrongfully entered the roadway.

Sierra Leone — Court of Appeal · 1961

Principle established: An appellate court will not interfere with a trial court's assessment of damages unless the figure is so generous as to show it was assessed on a wrong principle.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1988

Principle established: Psychiatric harm caused by witnessing damage to property may be actionable.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1950

Principle established: The maxim does not apply where the cause of the accident is known.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1969

Principle established: The 'but for' test: the claimant must show that but for the breach the damage would not have occurred.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1957

Principle established: An animal of a dangerous species (ferae naturae) is treated as dangerous whatever the individual animal is like. The keeper is strictly liable.

Kenya · 2018

Principle established: In a road traffic accident claim, the plaintiff must prove negligence on the part of the defendant's driver to recover damages for injuries sustained.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1856

Principle established: Negligence is the omission to do something a reasonable man would do, or doing something a prudent and reasonable man would not do (Alderson B).

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1957

Principle established: A professional is judged by the standard of the ordinary skilled person professing that skill (McNair J).

United Kingdom · 1957

Principle established: A professional is not negligent if he acts in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of professional opinion.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1951

Principle established: The likelihood of harm is weighed in deciding breach; a reasonable person need not guard against very small risks.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1984

Principle established: The eggshell rule applies to psychiatric harm.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1972

Principle established: An occupier owes trespassers a 'duty of common humanity': where he knows of a serious danger and the likely presence of trespassers, he must take the steps a humane person would take, judged by his own resources.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1956

Principle established: Damages for lost earnings are based on what the claimant would actually have received, after tax.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1863

Principle established: Barrels do not fall from windows without negligence; the thing speaks for itself.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1963

Principle established: Under the old law, time ran from when the damage occurred, even if the claimant could not know of it.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1962

Principle established: Careless instructions that cause physical injury can give rise to liability.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1964-66

Principle established: An insurer is bound to indemnify a permitted driver for liability arising from death or bodily injury, but a third party has no direct statutory right of action against the insurer for property damage.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1697

Principle established: Force used in self-defence must be reasonable and proportionate.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1927

Principle established: Negligent statements that cause harm to the person are actionable.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1932

Principle established: Lord Atkin's neighbour principle: take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour.

United Kingdom · 1932

Principle established: A manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer to ensure products are free from defects likely to cause injury, regardless of a contractual relationship.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1901

Principle established: Nervous shock is recoverable where it arises from a reasonable fear of immediate personal injury; Kennedy J also stated the thin skull rule.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1944

Principle established: Res ipsa loquitur requires the defendant's control of the thing causing harm.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1930

Principle established: A vehicle under the driver's control that mounts the pavement raises an inference of negligence.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1932

Principle established: Lord Dunedin: people must guard against reasonable probabilities, but not fantastic possibilities.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1964

Principle established: For a domestic animal, scienter liability needs knowledge of a vicious or abnormal tendency. Playfulness normal to the species is not enough.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1830

Principle established: The act comprising a battery must be done without the claimant's consent.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1873

Principle established: Where the train had only just left the station, the door was still under the company's control.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1922

Principle established: A tempting danger can be an 'allurement' to children. An occupier must take more care for children than for adults.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1964

Principle established: Damages for loss of amenity are awarded for the objective loss, even if the claimant cannot appreciate it.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1925

Principle established: Shock from fear for close family, perceived with one's own senses, can be recoverable.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1963

Principle established: A driver is negligent if he fails to avert colliding with a pedestrian who has already progressed sufficiently into the roadway to be clearly visible.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1963

Principle established: A pedestrian who has advanced sufficiently into the road is not guilty of contributory negligence for failing to check traffic where an oncoming driver could have avoided him.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1941

Principle established: An occupier who reasonably entrusts technical work to a competent contractor is not liable for the contractor's negligent work.