ROUGH DRAFT

NAME-Akhil Kumar Goyal (B.B.A.L.L.B)

SUBJECT- Law of Torts and Consumer Protection

TOPIC- Plaintiff the Wrongdoer And Contributory Negligence-Meaning

And Differences
 INTRODUCTION

Tort can be defined as a civil wrong which is not exclusively a breach of contract or breach of trust. 1It is also
defined by Salmond as a civil wrong for which the remedy is a common law action for unliquidated damages
and which is not exclusively the breach of contract or the breach of a trust or merely equitable obligation.2

To constitute a tort, the essentials are as follows: -

(a) There must be some act or omission on the part of the defendant
(b) The act or omission should result in legal damage(injuria), i.e. violation of a legal right vested in the
plaintiff.

When the plaintiff brings an action against the defendant for a particular tort,providing all the essentials
are met, the defendant will be liable for the same but the defendant, however, avoid his liability by seeking
defence.

Defences are generally used to avoid liability and Plaintiff the Wrongdoer and Contributory
negligence are two of those defences.

Plaintiff the Wrongdoer -Plaintiff the wrongdoer is based on the principle of ex turpi causa non ortitur
actio, meaning that, out of a wrongful cause, no action arises.

In such a case, the plaintiff has no legal recourse since the harm caused to him was a result of some wrong of
his own doing.

Plaintiff the wrongdoer, more than being a defence, is just another way of stating the said principle. You might
get the sense that this principle forms the basis of some other defences as well.

Contributory Negligence- It is deemed that a plaintiff who was even partially at fault for the incident, due to
his own negligence, could not recover any damages from the defendant, who supposedly caused the incident.
Contributory negligence refers to some amount of negligence on the part of the plaintiff, without which the
incident would not have occurred.

1. Negligence on the part of the plaintiff to a civil lawsuit, which contributed to the incident or injury at
hand.
2. Negligence on the part of an injured plaintiff which, combined with the negligence of the defendant,
caused the injury or damages.

1 Bangia R.K.,Law of Torts,Page 4

2 Harlow Carol,Understanding Tort Law,Page 6
 Statement of Problem

The problem arising here is in both Plaintiff the Wrongdoer and Contributory Negligence, acts are done

to protect oneself from the inflicted harm. If this is the case, howre they different from one another?

Aims and Objectives

The primary objective of this project report is to present the difference between the Plaintiff the Wrongdoer and
Contributory Negligence. The other specific objectives of this project report include:

To present the circumstances in which these are used.

To analyse the cases mentioned and thus differentiating them on the basis of judgement.

Hypothesis

The basic difference between the Plaintiff the Wrongdoer and Contributory Negligence is that in the
former the harm is done by an act of the wrong doer in the first place but in the latter there is contribution in
harm caused to the Plaintiff due to the negligence of both the Plaintiff and the Defendant

Research Methodology

In this project Doctrinal Method of Research is used. Doctrinal Methods refer to Library research, research or
processes done upon some texts writings or Documents, legal propositions and Doctrines, Articles, Books as
well as Online Research and Journals relating to the subject. This project is an intensive one so this method is
sufficient to address the findings and to arrive at concrete conclusions.

Tentative Chapterisation
Introduction

1.plaintiff the wrongdoer-meaning

2. contributory negligence- meaning

3.inter-ralation between Plaintiff the Wrongdoer And Contributory Negligence

4. Difference between Plaintiff the Wrongdoer And Contributory Negligence

5. Relating caselaws

Conclusion

References

BOOKS-

Books
1. Bangia R.K., Law of Torts,22nd edition.
2. Singh G.P.,Law of Torts

WEBSITES-

www.lawctopus.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.indiancanoon.org