Remoteness of Damage

Abstract

In order to recover damages in respect of injury caused by another’s negligence, you must establish that injury of that type was a foreseeable consequence of the negligence. This rule was laid down by the Privy Council in the case Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v. Morts Dock & Engineering Co Ltd, The Wagon Mound [1961] AC 388; although the English courts were not in strict law bound by the decision, it was nevertheless reasonably foreseeable that they would accept the principle, as one contemporary commentator wryly predicted (Goodhart, 1966). The rule is one of a number of mechanisms by which the law limits liability for the consequences of one’s negligence; most notable among the others are the principles concerning selection from among causally relevant factors and those concerning the existence and scope of the duty of care.