General Defenses and Discharge of Torts

A cloudburst floods Andheri and a parked car slides into a shop front. A man breaks into a neighbour's flat to put out a fire before the fire brigade comes. A guard pushes away a mugger. A municipal contractor digs up a road under a statutory order and your scooter's tyre bursts. In every scene somebody caused damage. In none of them is it obvious that the law will make them pay. These are the general defences, the answers a defendant can give even though the claimant has proved everything else.

In two minutes

Once the claimant has proved a tort, the defendant may plead a general defence that justifies or excuses his act; the main ones are volenti non fit injuria, inevitable accident and act of God, private defence, necessity, statutory authority, judicial acts, and (in part) contributory negligence, and each is a separate route to being discharged from liability.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Law of Torts, Motor Accident Claims and Consumer Protection on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.