tort

‘Proximity’ means ‘closeness’ so ‘sufficient proximity’ suggests that the person injured by a tort can be classed as the ‘legal neighbour’ of the tortfeasor

A legal neighbour is a person that is so directly affected by your actions that you should have had them in mind as likely to be affected when you committed those actions

Think of the motorcyclist that went round a corner too fast, hit a bus and killed himself. A pregnant woman, hearing the crash and wanting to see what had happened, pushed her way to the front of the crowd and saw the remains of the motorcyclist spread widely over the road. The sight of that mess, blood, bones and motorbike parts so upset her that she miscarried her unborn child.

So now she sues the deceased motor cyclist’s estate

Was she sufficiently proximate? Could he reasonably have foreseen that if he went round a corner too fast, hit a bus, killed himself, and a Glaswegian pregnant fishwife would hear the crash, push to the front of the crowd and be so upset that she would miscarry … could he have foreseen all that?

Er, no! He couldn’t even see the bus

So she was NOT a legal neighbour of his – she was not sufficiently proximate

OK?