COMMON LAW CIVIL LIABILITY LAW OF TORTS

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Environmental Law

Environmental Law2

Common LawControl environmental damagePrimary function to protect private rightsCivil actionIndividual has suffered harm/damage - againstIndividual / institution which has caused harmReactiveCompensatory - damagesBurden of proof

Environmental Law3

NegligenceAdvantagesClaimant does not need to have an interest in

landDamages compensate personal injuriesDisadvantagesInjunctions are not available; neither arePure economic loss & exemplary damages Necessary to prove fault

Environmental Law4

NegligenceDefinitionThe omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations whichordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do.Blythe v Birmingham Waterworks (1856)

Environmental Law5

In order to establish negligence, claimant must prove:

Defendant owes claimant a duty of care; Defendant breaches that duty (failure to act

reasonably)Breach causes damage to claimantDuty of care in negligence established inDonoghue v Stevenson (1932) Must take

reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour

Test of causation

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Negligence in environmental law is difficult to proveDiffuse sources of pollutionForeseeability of the damageCambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather

1994Foreseeability of the relevant type of harm / damageIn that case supervisor could not reasonably have foreseen damage ie contamination of groundwatersProximate relationship between partiesJust and reasonable to impose duty

Environmental Law7

NegligenceDamage must be provedPossible to claim damages for physical damage

to person or property and for loss consequential to damage but not for pure economic loss

Nuisance: PrivateStatutory = ss79-82 Environmental Protection Act1990Private = reconciling competing interests of landowners

Environmental Law8

Private NuisanceConduct must constitute an unreasonable

interference with interest in beneficial use of land

Defined in Read v Lyons (1947) as:‘Unlawful interference with a person’s use or

enjoyment of land or some right over, or in connection with it’

Reasonableness – Saunders v Grosvenor Mansions and D’Allesandri (1990)

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Private Nuisance: Acting reasonably?Court balances competing interests and takes

a/c of:Locality;Duration;Sensitivity of plaintiff;Intention of defendant;Whole communityForseeability of type of harm/damage

(CambridgeWater)Interest in land affected