WHS Due Diligence for CEO’s, Directors and Managers – NSW edition
Topic 5 – Duty of Care
Duty of Care
Act in a way that does not put others at risk of harm. Under the WHS Act 2011, this duty is extended for the person to take reasonable care for his/her own safety as well.
This duty can not be delegated.
The following court case laid the foundation for our current understanding of Duty of Care.
Donoghue v. Stevenson 1932 Paisley – The Snail in the Bottle
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] This was a foundational decision in Scots delict law and English tort law by the House of Lords. It created the modern concept of negligence, by setting out general principles whereby one person would owe a duty of care to another person.
Also known as the “Paisley snail” or “Snail in the Bottle” case, the facts involved Mrs Donoghue drinking a bottle of ginger beer in a café in Paisley, Renfrewshire. A dead snail was in the bottle. She fell ill, and she sued the ginger beer manufacturer, Mr Stevenson. The House of Lords held that the manufacturer owed a duty of care to her, which was breached, because it was reasonably foreseeable that failure to ensure the product’s safety would lead to harm of consumers.
