Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:16:07 -0600

From: Lewis Klar

Subject: Liability for acts of others

As you probably know, these types of actions are frequently litigated in Canada. We have had commercial host liability for many years and a social host liability case is before the Supreme Court of Canada (Childs v Desormeaux). A case involving the death of several miners as a result of the deliberate placing of a bomb during a bitter strike led to the liability of a number of parties including a trade union (Fullowka v. Royal Oak Ventures, [2005] 5 WWR 420), a judgment which I believe is currently under appeal. There are a number of other examples of persons being liable in tort for the acts of third parties in institutional settings - prisons, hospitals, schools. Occupiers liability laws generally make an occupier responsible for the safety of its premises, including responsibility for the acts of third parties. I would be surprised if American and Canadian case law on these matters differed all that much, if at all. Discussion of these matters can be found in most standard tort texts in Canada.

Lewis Klar
Professor of Law
University of Alberta

>>> Benjamin Zipursky 04/28/06 2:36 PM >>>

Many American jurisdictions impose liability upon psychiatrists when a dangerous patient foreseeably injures a third party, and impose liability upon landlords or parking lot owners when their creation or fostering of dangerous conditions leads to a criminal assaulting a plaintiff. Could anyone point me to comparative work that indicates whether these sorts of actions exist in other countries? Similarly, for dram shop or social host liability.

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