Potential continuation of a duty of care

Begum (On Behalf of Mollah) v Maran (UK) Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 326

The Court of Appeal, in an interim application for summary judgment in a claim for compensation for personal injuries, has indicated that there may be some scope for the duty of care in negligence to continue in some circumstances even after a vessel had been handed over from shipowners to shipbreakers. The case concerned a potential exception to the rule in English law that a defendant will not be liable in tort for any harm caused by the intervention of third parties. The Court of Appeal held that it would be wrong to strike out the claimant’s negligence claim as fanciful, pointing out that claims based on duty of care where damage has been caused by third party acts are at the “forefront of the development of the law of negligence” and the alleged duty in this case could certainly be regarded as on the edge of that development. The decision meant that a negligence claim on the substantive issues would still be possible.