With reference to case law, examine the extent to which the tort of defamation succeeds in striking a balance between protection of reputation and freedom of speech.

1. Jeremy, a famous television news presenter, decides to raise money for charity by undertaking a televised parachute jump from a helicopter. Unfortunately, owing to the negligence of Bill, the pilot, the helicopter runs out of fuel shortly after take off. Bill is forced to make a crashlanding in a nearby field. On hitting the ground, the helicopter catches fire. Jeremy is killed in the crash and Bill is trapped in the burning wreckage. Giles, a farmer who is recovering from an episode of clinical depression, is planting potatoes in the field. Luckily, the helicopter does not hit him. However, in subsequent weeks, the incident plays on his mind, causing a recurrence of his illness. Kirsty, Jeremy’s sister, watches the horrifying events unfold on live television. When she sees pictures of the burning helicopter (taken from a distance) she assumes that Jeremy has been killed. Subsequently, she is told by a policeman that her assumption is correct. In the following months, she suffers severe clinical depression. Candy, Bill’s wife, is a fire-officer on duty at the time of the accident. She responds to an emergency call and arrives at the scene. She fights her way through the flames and pulls her husband from the burning helicopter, saving his life. Some weeks later, Candy has a nervous breakdown and has to give up work. Penelope, Jeremy’s mother, cannot be told about the accident immediately because she is climbing a mountain in the Himalayas. Three days later, she returns from her climb and checks into a hotel with internet facilities. She is surfing the internet when she sees, posted in a newsgroup, horrifying recorded video images of the crash, taken by an amateur cameraman. She suffers post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the shock. Advise Bill as to his liabilities (if any) to Giles, Kirsty, Candy and Penelope in the law of tort. 2 2. Doris, a successful professional athlete aged 18, is jogging along the Moorgate pavement when she reaches the pedestrian crossing and decides to cross. The traffic lights controlling the vehicles have just turned to red (stop) and the pedestrian signal has not yet turned to green (go). However, she decides to risk crossing immediately as she does not want to stop moving and she runs across the road. She is knocked down by Enid, who is driving at fifty miles an hour. Enid had seen that the lights had only just changed and did not expect anyone to run off the pavement. Enid brings her car to a sudden halt, causing it to skid across the road into the path of Fred, who is driving on the other side of the road. Fred is travelling at thirty miles per hour, and has also just driven through a red traffic light. Fred’s car spins around as he tries to stop and runs over the legs of Doris, who is still lying on the road. Whilst Enid and Fred get into an argument, Georgina, a rival of Doris who has been watching these events, sneaks over to Doris and kicks her in the face, breaking her nose. Doris is taken to hospital where the doctors diagnose that her damaged legs will never work properly again. This is because the breaking of her bones has set off in her a rare reaction which has caused her muscles to seize up irreparably. The doctors declare that her athletics career is at an end. Doris had expected to be able to compete professionally for at least the next ten years. However the doctors also discover that Doris has a wasting disease of the spine which would have prevented her from competing anyway within two years. They are sure that the disease has been caused by exposure to radiation from a machine frequently used by rogue physiotherapists to help relax the muscles of athletes and to improve their performance. Doris has undergone such treatment from several such physiotherapists, most recently from Hamid. Advise Doris as to the issues of causation which may arise in her negligence claims for her injuries and for her loss of future income as a professional athlete. 3. In Daborn v Bath Tramways [1946] 2 All ER 333, Asquith L.J. said: “In determining whether a party is negligent, the standard of reasonable care is that which is reasonably to be demanded in the circumstances. A relevant circumstance to take into account may be the importance of the end to be served by behaving in this way or in that.” 3 In the light of this statement, and with reference to decided cases, examine the factors the courts take into account in deciding whether a defendant is in breach of the duty of care. 4. Harry owns a private health club in Windsor, which is managed for him by Meghan. Although Harry famously permits celebrity guests to visit the health club after it has closed to its members, he has specifically instructed Meghan that she must not do this without his express permission. Whilst Harry was away on holiday, Meghan received a request from William Wales, a well-known public figure, to be able to visit the health club that evening after closing, accompanied by his wife Catherine. He told Meghan that they just wanted to use the running machines in order to get in shape for a forthcoming round-the-world trip. Meghan was unable to contact Harry, but gave William permission to enter the health centre anyway William and Catherine arrived at 20:00, accompanied by their 5-year old son, George, and Mary, George’s nanny. The four of them were let into the health club by Meghan. Although she was surprised to see George and Mary, she smiled at them and said to George: “Now then. You must be a good boy. Don’t go upstairs to the gym, because there’s an ogre up there who eats little boys at night.” She said to all of them: “Please be careful in the club tonight and stick together. We can’t take any responsibility if you are injured in any way whilst the club is closed.” Meghan then took William and Catherine to show them the running machines. George and Mary meanwhile wandered off in opposite directions. Mary went into the pool area, where there was a Jacuzzi, which had been left switched on. Mary decided to use it and got undressed. Because the water was swirling around, she could not tell how deep the Jacuzzi was and she dived in from the edge. In fact, it was only three feet deep, and she cracked her head open on the bottom of it. George went up the stairs to the gym, hoping to see the ogre. He found some wall bars, and started to climb them. Unfortunately, they were not properly secured, and he was injured when they came loose and he fell ten feet to the ground. Catherine went in search of a toilet. She found that the public toilets were all locked, but she saw a door marked “Manager’s Office” and 4 assuming that there would be an en-suite bathroom inside, she entered. She was mauled by the Rottweiler dog, which was guarding the room. Meanwhile, William asked Mary if he could use the rowing machine. Meghan was aware that a fault with the machine had been reported earlier in the week, but she had hired an engineer to fix it that day, and presumed that it was now mended. In fact, the engineer, whose number Meghan had found on a hand-written card in a newsagent’s window, was both unqualified and incompetent. As William was pulling back on the machine, the tension cord snapped, breaking William’s finger and his expensive Rolex watch. Advise William, Catherine, George and Mary as to their rights in the law of Occupiers’ Liability. 5. Fizz buys a large Victorian house in south London, which she has converted into four bedsits, with a central communal living room. In January, she rents out the first bed-sit to Andy, who is training to be an opera singer. Andy asks Fizz if he will be able to practise singing in his bed-sit. Fizz replies: “I won’t be living here. What do I care?” Andy subsequently sings very loudly in the bed-sit almost every afternoon from 14:00 to 17:00. In February, Fizz rents the bed-sit adjoining Andy’s to Betty, a nurse who works mainly on night shifts. Betty is frequently disturbed when she is trying to sleep during the day by hearing Andy walking about and running water in his bed-sit. She is particularly upset by the sound of him practising his singing. She drops a note through his letter-box asking him to be quiet during the day, but Andy ignores this. Thereafter, whenever she hears Andy singing, Betty bangs on his wall with a broom. One afternoon she bangs so hard that she makes his wall shake, and several of his ornaments fall off a bookshelf and are broken. In March, Fizz rents the third bed-sit to Cole. Cole is a talented amateur jeweller, who spends much of his spare time in the evenings making trinkets to give to the people at the local charity shop to sell for their good causes. The machinery he uses to cut his stones causes electrical interference with the television pictures of Andy and Fizz, even when they are watching video-taped recordings rather than live transmissions. 5 In April, Fizz permits her sister, Delilah, to stay in the fourth bed-sit free of charge whilst she is looking for a flat to buy in London. Delilah is disturbed by Andy’s singing, Betty’s banging and Cole’s machinery. In May, a fire breaks out in the communal living room due to the failure by the residents of the bed-sits to extinguish an indoor barbecue. The smoke enters the bedroom of Enid, the elderly owner of the house next door. She is woken by her heroic Siamese cat, but suffers injury from smoke inhalation. Advise all the parties as to their possible claims in the tort of private nuisance. 6. With reference to case law, examine the extent to which the tort of defamation succeeds in striking a balance between protection of reputation and freedom of speech.