The defence of
volenti non fit injuria (voluntary assumption of risk) can preclude you from successfully suing the driver.
He said it was a clear case
of volenti non fit injuria (voluntary assumption of risk), and urged the court to make progress.
There does not appear to be anything special about occupiers» liability that warrants a departure from the widely accepted
volenti doctrine.
Reinforcement of this view is found when one asks why this area of law should entail a defence other than
volenti which is applicable to negligence actions generally.
Slightly more liability here, but also quite a bit
more volenti.
As Ormrod LJ stated in Cummings v Granger the words of this section should be given «their ordinary English meaning» and the question should not be complicated too much with the «old, long history of the doctrine
of volenti».
However, in the context of e-cigarettes, manufacturers who persist in their claims that their products are «harmless», in the absence of proof, may well be forfeiting their rights to
the volenti trump card that has, in the past, served the tobacco industry so well.
«Big tobacco» had played
the volenti non fit injuria trump card and they had won.
Would he have known how to respond when the opposing counsel added the defence of
volenti (voluntary assumption of risk) to its position?
The unreasonable act argument was dismissed for similar reasons, as was
the volenti argument.
Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13; [2008] 1 A.C. 884; [2008] 2 W.L.R. 499; [2008] 2 All E.R. 943; [2008] I.C.R. 372; [2008] P.I.Q.R. P11; (2008) 105 (10) L.S.G. 28; (2008) 152 (9) S.J.L.B. 30; Times, February 28, 2008 — Personal Injury (causation;
volenti non fit injuria; intervening events; remoteness; contributory negligence; insanity; suicide)
I'm already trying to think of ways to visually represent «
volenti non fit injuria» and «omnia praesumuntur contra spoliatorem»... but perhaps an easier place to start would be the equitable «clean hands» principle.