Understanding Wrongful Acts in Business Management - Torts & Legal Remedies

Why You Should Attend This Course:

Ignorance is not a privilege. It is your misfortune. What you do not know can hurt you. Torts means wrongful acts .

If someone has wronged another person, what are his legal rights? The law of torts has the answer. There are various types of torts or wrongful acts that can be committed such as negligence, nuisance, trespass, harassment and defamation. Participants will learn the basic torts/wrongful acts and its remedies in this course.

Formal lectures on principles of law and practices, followed by case-studies and case-presentations, and educational video presentation will be used to reinforce the practical applications of the law in a real life environment.

Course Outline:

Negligence

• duty of care
• breach of duty: standard of care
• causation and intervening acts
• foreseeable harm
• omission in rescue cases
• control of land & dangerous things
• economic loss & nervous shock cases
• precautions & warnings
• children, sport
• egg shell skull rule
• defective product liability
• damage must be foreseeable and too remote

Nuisance

• private nuisance, public nuisance
• harassment
• interference with enjoyment of land
• duration of interference
• abnormal sensitivity
• public benefit
• malice & negligence: who can sue?
• Who is liable?
• defences, damages, injunction and abatement
• public health & public rights protected
• convenience: obstruction of highway
• safety: dangers to highway & roads

Employers Liability

• proper plant & equipment
• competent staff
• safe place of work: Workplace, Safety & Health Laws
• SARS, infection control & the law
• defences
• volenti non fit injuria
• contributory negligence

Dangerous Premises

• liability of occupiers to visitors & trespassers
• independent contractors
• warning & acceptance of risk
• exclusion of liability
• landlords & tenants

Strict Liability

• rule in Rylands v Fletcher
• dangerous things & non-natural use
• escape: who can sue?
• defences, consent, damages
• fire, animals
• vicarious liability, vehicle drivers
• liability for independent contractors
• statutory duties & common law duties
• master & servant

Trespass to Land

• airspace & subsoil
• interference & justification
• rights of entry
• possession: who can sue?
• trespass and nuisance
• remedies available

Trespass to the Person

• battery & assault
• criminal injuries
• false imprisonment
• defences: consent, lawful arrest & self defence
• malicious prosecution
• malice & damage

Defamation

• what is defamatory?
• libel & slander
• publication & reference to plaintiff
• truth & justification
• absolute privilege & qualified privilege
• what is fair comment ?
• matters of public interest
• malice

Contracts Restraining Work Elsewhere

• non-competition clauses
• inducing Breach of Contract
• competitors

Defences and Limitation

• voluntary assumption of risk
• knowledge, agreement
• excluding liability, illegality
• inevitable accident & necessity
• standard of care children, the infirm, workmen, emergency
• personal injuries & death
• persons under a disability

Remedies and Death

• types of damages: general and special monetary awards
• medical and other expenses
• loss of earnings & salary
• pain & suffering
• loss of amenity
• damage to property
• mitigation & interest on damage
• injunction
• fatal accidents & death

Trainer s Profile:

Prof Catherine Tay Swee Kian is an Associate Professorial Fellow lecturing law at the National University of Singapore, Department of Strategy and Policy (NUS Business School). She is also an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and an author of several law books, including contract law book. She is a Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln s Inn, United Kingdom.

Prof Tay studied law at Queen Mary College, University of London and graduated with a Master of Laws, in which she specialised in Company, Shipping, Insurance and Marine Insurance Laws. She did her pupillage under the Honourable Lady Mary Hogg in London and returned to Singapore in the law firm of Rodyk & Davidson.

Prof Tay was on the Board of Overseas Editors for the (United Kingdom) Journal of Financial Crime, an official publication of the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. She has presented papers at many conferences and seminars on Business Law, Medical Law, Company and Insolvency Laws both overseas and in Singapore. Prof Tay is an examiner on law subjects for a number of professional bodies in Singapore and overseas. She also conducts in-house seminars for hospitals, banks, statutory boards, hotels, commercial firms and companies, clubs and associations.

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