The concept of contributory negligence is used by defendants to reduce the amount of damages payable to the plaintiff on the grounds that the plaintiff failed to take reasonable care of his own welfare.
In a traffic accident case, examples of contributory negligence might include
- a plaintiff pedestrian who recklessly runs across a road, and
- a car passenger who fails to wear his seat belt.
In the 2 cases headlined above, the court found that the plaintiff companies were themselves contributorily negligent in failing to take steps to stop the fraud complained off. In the
JSI Shipping case, the court found that the overseas director did not even read the audit reports that he was complaining about. He also did not take prompt action to terminate Riggs' (the dishonest director)employment and to report the matter to the authorities. Although the auditors used s 391 of the Companies Act, the court found contributory negligence concepts were also relevant.
The concept of contributory negligence echoes concepts of "reasonable diligence" expected from all company directors under s.157 of the Companies Act
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