Careless professional work, trespass and nuisance are torts
A worked RES examination question on tort remedies and limitation, from our Paper 1 bank — with the rule it turns on, and why each of the four options is right or wrong.
The question
A salesperson sitting a firm's internal assessment is given four short descriptions of things that have gone wrong and asked to identify which of them is not a tort. The first is a surveyor who prepared a structural report carelessly, causing his client to buy a defective building. The second is a contractor who walked repeatedly across a neighbouring plot without permission in order to reach his own site. The third is a factory emitting smoke across a whole neighbourhood. The fourth is a seller who, having exchanged contracts, simply failed to complete on the agreed date and offered no explanation for it.
Which is not a tort?
The answer, and why
Answer: C
The rule. Careless professional work, trespass and nuisance are torts. A failure to perform a contractual obligation is a breach of contract, not a tort.
Why C is correct. The seller's failure to complete arises under the contract.
The other options.
- A, B and D each name a tort.
Exam note. Contract and tort are different sources of obligation. A broken promise belongs to the first.
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