General Part, Illustrations. (2)
19th Century Sir Frederick Pollock EnglishA. unlawfully throws a stone at B., which misses B. and hits and breaks C.’s water-jar. A. has wronged C.
A. lies in wait for B., intending to assault and beat him as he goes home in the evening. Mistaking C. for B. in the dusk, A. assaults C. A. has wronged C.
A. unlawfully diverts a stream for the purpose of depriving B.’s growing crops of their irrigation. The diversion of the stream harms C.’s crops as well as B.’s by drought, and the water floods a piece of D.’s land and spoils the crops growing thereon. A. has wronged both C. and D.
A. and C., who is B.’s servant, quarrel in the street. A. draws a knife and threatens C. with it. C. runs hastily into B.’s house for protection, and in so doing strikes and upsets a jar of ghee belonging to B., so that the jar is broken and the ghee lost. A. has wronged B..
A. whips a horse which B. is riding. The horse runs away with B., and knocks down C., who falls against D.’s window and breaks it. A. has wronged both C. and D..
A. leaves his horse and cart unattended in the street of a town. B. and C. are children playing in the street. B. climbs into the cart; as he is doing so C. causes the horse to move on, and B. is thereby thrown down under the wheel of the cart, which passes over him and injures him. A. has wronged B..
A. leaves a loaded gun in a place where he knows that children are accustomed to play. B. and C. come with other children to play there; B. takes up the gun and points it in sport at C. The gun goes off and wounds C. A. has wronged C..
A. unlawfully causes a stream of water to spout up in a public road. B. is driving his horse and carriage along the road: the horse takes fright at the water and swerves to the other side, whereby the horse and carriage fall into a cutting by the roadside which has been improperly left open by C., and B. is wounded and the horse and carriage damaged. A. has wronged B..
The other facts being as in the last illustration, some of the water runs into the cutting, and wets and damages some clothes belonging to D., who is at work in an adjoining field and has deposited them there. A. has not wronged D..
A. leaves his gate, opening on a highway, insufficiently fastened; A.’s horse gets through the gate and kicks B., who is lawfully on the highway. If the horse was not to A.’s knowledge a vicious one, A. has not wronged B..
A. is the owner of a field in which he keeps horses. A. neglects the repair of the gate of this field, whereby a horse breaks down the gate, strays into B.’s adjoining field, and kicks and injures a horse of B.’s which is there kept. A. has wronged B..
A. is driving an ox through the street of a town with due care and caution. The ox goes off the road into B.’s shop and does damage to B.’s goods. The ox may be liable to be impounded, but B. cannot sue A. for compensation, for, although the damage is the natural consequence of the ox straying, A. has done no wrong..
Survival of liabilities and rights to representatives.11. Subject to the provisions of this Act and to the law of limitation every right of action under this Act is available against and for the executors, administrators and representatives of the wrong-doer and the person wronged respectively.
Liability for wrong unaffected by the same fact amounting to an offence.12. For the purposes of this Act, it is immaterial whether the facts constituting a wrong do or do not amount to an offence.