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Tort: Defences and Remedies

Volenti, rescuers and employees

  • 3 things to know
  • Components 2 and 3

Overview

Why a rescuer is not treated as having consented — Haynes v Harwood against Cutler v United Dairies — and how rarely the defence succeeds against an employee.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why is a rescuer generally not treated as consenting to the risk?

Key term

What did Haynes v Harwood [1935] decide?

Key term

What did Cutler v United Dairies [1933] decide?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why is a rescuer generally not treated as consenting to the risk?

    Model answer

    A rescuer acts under a moral compulsion to save life or property. The law refuses to treat a response to danger created by the defendant as free consent.

  2. 2

    What did Haynes v Harwood [1935] decide?

    Model answer

    A police officer was injured stopping horses that bolted through a crowded street after being left unattended. The Court of Appeal rejected volenti, because he acted to prevent immediate danger to others.

  3. 3

    What did Cutler v United Dairies [1933] decide?

    Model answer

    A man was injured going into a field to calm a horse that had bolted there. The court allowed volenti, because nobody was in immediate danger when he intervened.

  4. 4

    How are Haynes v Harwood and Cutler v United Dairies distinguished?

    Model answer

    The officer in Haynes v Harwood faced an emergency threatening people in a busy street. The claimant in Cutler v United Dairies chose to enter a field where nobody was at risk.

  5. 5

    What did Baker v TE Hopkins and Son Ltd [1959] decide?

    Model answer

    A doctor went down a well full of fumes to try to save two trapped workmen and died. The Court of Appeal held that volenti did not apply to a rescuer acting in an emergency.

  6. 6

    Does a professional rescuer lose the protection given to rescuers?

    Model answer

    A firefighter or police officer counts as a rescuer even though rescue forms part of the job. The wrongdoer who created the danger remains liable.

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