Law - Tort of Negligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law - Tort of Negligence - Essay Example Before then, the courts studied the circumstances of the case and so if there was precedent and decided, based on all these, if the plaintiff was entitled to redress. Tort of negligence There was no set rule defining what negligence was. It was in the case of Donoghue vs. Stevenson where negligence as a rule first arose (Oliphant,2005. P. 325). In this case the plaintiff’s friend offered her a ginger beer that was manufactured by the defendants. The drink was contained in an opaque bottle. She poured some of the beer and drank it. When she poured some more, she discovered that the drink had contained a decomposed snail. She then became sick because of the disgust from the thought that she had been drinking the remains of the decomposed snail. She sued the manufacturers. The defendants argued that if they had a contract, it was between them and the plaintiff’s friend, who was in fact the one who bought the drink. They therefore didn’t have a contract with the plai ntiff and didn’t even know her. So they had no liability. From the courts arguments in this case, three major points came out- Contract fallacy: The court agreed that one doesn’t need to have contractual relations with someone else in order to be liable to that person. This point shot down the defendants’ argument. ... who are in my contemplation when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions in question.† This point showed that the defendant did indeed owe the plaintiff a duty of care. The principle of product liability: This principle states that the manufacturer of a defective product is liable to the ultimate consumer who receives that product. This principle has since then evolved and gone on to serve new purposes. This case went up to the House of Lords and they agreed that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. The factors of whether there was a breach of that duty and whether damage occurred were not brought up in this case because the defendants feared the bad publicity that the case had brought and decided to settle it with the plaintiff outside the court. The court decided that there were three main ingredients to the tort of negligence: The defendant must owe a duty of care to the plaintiff there must be a breach of that duty, and the breach must result in damage. Breach of duty to take care Thus the first thing that the cricket club ought to ask itself was whether the Brunel owed it a duty of care. From there the cricket club must establish whether Brunel breached the duty of care. This comes about where the defendant failed to take reasonable care. Reasonableness may vary with circumstances e.g. if someone is handling a box of sweets, the reasonable care required may be much less than that which is required while handling a box of explosives. The case of Blyth vs. Birmingham Waterworks Co. further expounded on this Alderson B. in this case described negligence as â€Å"omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which generally or ordinarily regulate human affairs will do, or doing something which a reasonable man

Design of Concrete Frame based on Iranian Code (2800) and Eurocode (EC Literature review

Design of Concrete Frame based on Iranian Code (2800) and Eurocode (EC 8) for Resistance to Earthquake - Literature review Example Another incident claimed 1000 people in 1981 in Kerman while 40,000 faced the same in Gilan, a province in Northern Iran. The Ritcher scale reading struck 7.2. An earthquake that occurred in Bam in December 2003 is numbered among the 130 major earthquakes in Iranian history with estimated casualty cases of 30-50 thousand (Iranian Studies Group, 2004, p.2). The foundation of assessment of seismic hazard in Iran is on the frequency of seismicity in relation to time and space. In the assessment of seismic hazards, seismotectonic sources are considered. The success of this study relies on regional and local knowledge on geology, seismicity and tectonics. The core sources of seismotectonic forces are; †¢ Fault sources and †¢ Area sources (Takavoli, B., and Ghafory, M., 1999, P.1013). Research conducted by different firms like Wilson (1930), Niazi (1968) and many others reveal that seismicity in Iran is linked to local surface geology and tectonics (1014). Iranian plateau is characterized by active faults, active volcanoes with an Alpine earthquake belt that is elongated and of high surface. Active earthquake activities are found along Zagros fold thrust belt thus making most parts of Iran vulnerable to earthquakes (Takavoli, B., and Ghafory, M., 1999, P.1014).... This allows the required dissipation energy. Capacity design protocols, parameters and fashion designs assist greatly in obtaining of design standards followed in design procedure. Seismic design codes vary from country to country due to various factors which include: The desire for seismic design codes of high quality The impact created on previous earthquakes relying on provision s indicated on the codes Research conducted at academic institutions on seismic designs and The period taken in the implementation of policies and legislative laws. Iran being an earthquake prone area has developed its own codes to be implemented in construction of structures. Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings Reinforced concrete is composed of horizontal elements called beams and vertical elements called columns. These two components are joined together with rigid joints. The beams and columns are cast together to form a monolithic structure. Reinforced concrete frames offer resistance to gravitational and lateral loads by bending that occurs in beams and columns. Some of the subtypes of reinforced concrete frame construction are: Nonductile reinforced concrete frames with or without infill walls, Nonductile reinforced concrete frames with reinforced infill walls, Ductile reinforced concrete frames with or without infill walls. Tremendous changes have been made to design and details of reinforced concrete frame structures in seismic zones. Earlier building codes focused on requirements needed strength of a structure. The structural members were to provide resistance to lateral seismic loads. From various researches conducted about earthquakes, building codes shifted focus to sectioning and detailing of beams, columns and joints. The aim