Volume 1

Report / Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury.
Date:
1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report / Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    401/568 (page 383)
    130 The defence of act of a third party should not be available to a railway undertaking where strict liability applies (paragraph 1189). 131 The defence of act of God, or force majeure, should not be available to a railway undertaking where strict liability applies (paragraph 1190). 132 Railway undertakings should not be strictly liable for injury or death to trespassers; and the questions whether they owe any duty of care to a parti- cular trespasser, and if so how it could be performed, should be determined as in the case of other occupiers of property (paragraph 1191). Products liability (Chapter 22) 133 Producers should be strictly liable in tort for death or personal injury caused by defective products (paragraph 1236). 134 ‘Defect’ should be defined in accordance with Article 2 of the Strasbourg Convention, which states that ‘a product has a “‘defect”’ when it does not provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect, having regard to all the circum- stances including the presentation of the product’ (paragraph 1237). 135 Both producers of finished products and component producers should be strictly liable in tort for defective products; but, subject to recommendation 136, distributors should not (paragraph 1242). 136 A distributor who has sold a defective product in the course of a business should be under an obligation to disclose to a person injured by the product either the name of the producer of the goods or the name of his own supplier; and failure to do so within a reasonable time should render the seller himself strictly liable in tort (paragraph 1244). 137 In respect of ‘own brand’ products, strict liability in tort should apply to those who brand them, as well as to their producers (paragraph 1247). 138 Producers should not be exempt from strict liability in respect of defective finished products which have been made to a specification (paragraph 1248). 139 Importers should be treated as producers for the purpose of products liability (paragraph 1250). 140 It should be a defence for the producer to prove either that he did not put the product into circulation; or that the product was not defective when he did so; or that he did not put it into circulation in the course of a business (paragraph 1252). 141 It should not be a defence for the producer merely to prove that he had withdrawn, or attempted to withdraw, his product (paragraph 1253). 142 The manufacturer of an aircraft should be given a right to be indemnified by a user or operator who has wilfully or negligently ignored his instructions to rectify defects or modify service schedules (paragraph 1255). 143 The defence of contributory negligence should be available to a producer (paragraph 1257).