Bill and Ben were good mates but had a nasty argument about some money that Bill owed to Ben. Bill claimed that he had no money on him at present. He said heatedly: 'You'll get your money when I'm ready' and stalked off. Furious, Ben chased after him and tripped him. Bill fell, struck his head on the kerbstone of a footpath, suffered a sub-cranial hemorrhage, and died. Analyze the liability of Ben for Bill's death.

 

 

Question 2

 

Late one night, Freddie was driving his vehicle towards his home village in the River Valley after spending an evening drinking beer with friends in Port Town. His younger brother, Dan, was traveling with him, sitting in the front passenger seat. Dan was drinking a can of beer. He was drunk.  Eventually, Dan fell asleep. He slumped against Freddie spilling his beer into Freddie's lap. Startled by the shock, Freddie jerked away from Dan, pulling the steering wheel away. This caused the vehicle to cross towards the other side of the road and hit a man, Sam, who was walking in the middle of the road.  

 

Freddie stopped his vehicle and attempted to comfort Sam who was conscious but obviously severely injured. He then called the police and an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance ran out of fuel halfway to the accident: the driver knew that the ambulance was low on fuel but had forgotten to fill up. Sam died from loss of blood just before the ambulance finally arrived.

 

The police arrived soon afterward. They immediately noticed that Freddie smelt strongly of alcohol. The police also found that, due to an electrical fault, the lights on Freddie's car were not operating and would not have been operating at the time of the accident.

 

Freddie was arrested and taken to the police station in Port Town.  The police conducted a caution interview with him. Freddie admitted that he had drunk 'a lot of beer' on the night of the accident. He said that he had not seen the man on the road. He knew the lights on his vehicle were not working but had been too busy to get them fixed. Freddie said he was driving very carefully until Dan spilt beer into his lap.

 

Witnesses said that the night of the accident was dark, with no moonlight, and that Sam was drunk and wandering in the middle of the road. Freddie did not appear to be travelling at excessive speed.

 

Analyze Freddie's liability for the death of Sam.

 

 

Notes.

Your answers should: (1) identify the issues, (2) identify the law of your jurisdiction that is relevant to each issue, and (3) analyze the facts in light of the law on each issue.

 

In identifying the relevant law of your jurisdiction, start with statutory provisions. Case law is to be used to interpret the statutory provisions or to fill in gaps. Some cases from various jurisdictions have been posted on Moodle.

 

In analyzing the facts, aim for reasoned arguments about how the relevant statutory provisions and propositions from the cases apply to the facts of the problem. Your primary job as a lawyer is to identify the arguments that might be made on each side and put them in their strongest form. If you think that the arguments on one side are stronger than those on the other side, say so and explain why.  However, do not assume that there is a 'right answer'.