Law Cases - Duty of Care

R v Pittwood 1902 - A contractual duty to act exists.

Manslaughter by virtue of contractual duty - omitted to shut the railway gates.

R v Gibbins and Proctor 1918 - a duty exists because of as relationship between the victim and the accused.

The child’s father and his mistress failed to feed the child, so it died of starvation, their omission to act formed the AR of the offence, so they were found guilty of murder.

R v Stone and Dobinson 1977 - a duty toward the victim has been taken on voluntarily by the accused.

Stone’s sister came to live with the defendants, she became ill and couldn’t care for herself, thus dying. S and D were convicted of manslaughter, due to their failure to help her themselves or summon help from other sources, which formed the AR of the crime.

R v Evans 2009 - a duty toward the victim has been taken on voluntarily by the accused.

The 16 year old victim was a heroin addict living with her mum and half-sister. The sister obtained the heroin, but the victim injected it herself, clearly had an overdose, and neither of the defendants attempted to get help, and put her to bed hoping she would recover, but she died. The mother owed a duty of care to her daughter, and the half-sister had created a situation of which she knew or ought reasonably to have known was life-threatening, and therefore owed her a duty.

R v Dytham 1979 - a duty towards the victim arises from an official position.

The defendant, a police officer, witnessed a violent attack on the victim but took no steps to intervene or summon help, and drove away instead. He was found guilty of wilfully and without reasonable excuse neglecting to perform his duty.

R v Miller 1983 - a duty towards the victim arises because the defendant has set in motion a chain of events.

The defendant, a squatter, fell asleep in an empty house, when his lit cigarette fell onto his mattress, and a fire started. When he realised this he got up and went to another room to sleep. He didn’t attempt to it out the fire or summon help. He was guilty of arson under the Criminal Damage Act 1971, s.1.