Reference no: EM132374053

Hughes v Group Advocate (1963).

Starting points, add or take away ones that do not apply

Introduction

The Facts

-One evening at 5:00 on November 1958 in Edinburgh, Scotland, two boys, aged 8 and 10 years old, found a worksite where Post Office employees had been working on an underground telephone pole and were taking a tea break leaving an open manhole unguarded with a tent covering it surrounded by kerosene lanterns. The two boys descended into the hole and came back up. As they were back on the surface, they knocked one of the lanterns which dropped into the hole causing the lantern to break and the gaseous form of kerosene to vaporize which then came into contact with the lantern's flame. This created a large explosion that caused the 8 years old boy, Hughes, the plaintiff, to fall into the manhole and suffer severe burns. Hughes sued the Lord Advocate of Scotland as the representative of the Post Office. The courts of Scotland found in favour of the defendant, the Lord Advocate, on the grounds that though the burns were foreseeable, the vaporization of the kerosene and the explosion it caused was unforeseeable.

Common Law Actions
Negligence
Duty of Care
Breach of the Duty of Care
Causation
Defence of Contributory Negligence?
Decision

Contract

Actions under Statute Law
Australian Consumer Law

The Guarantees: Threshold Issues
Guarantees about Goods

Remedies for Breach of Guarantees

Conclusion

This is assignment is relating the commercial law of AUSTRALIA.