Question: Can I sue a driver of a daladala (a commuter bus)
who causes an accident on salender bridge and because of his negligence
thousands of people are blocked in traffic and get late to work which costs the
country billions of shillings worth of time. If I was the President of Tanzania
I would allow such a claim against the daladala driver and his owner. Does our
law allow that? FE, Dar
Answer: Under the rule of negligence and
law of tort, there are a few questions you must ask yourself. Does the daladala
driver owe you a duty of care? If he does, then the next question is was he in
breach of that duty? If he was in breach, and it caused you damages, then you
can recover from him.
When the daladala driver
causes an accident, he does not do so intentionally. It is an accident just
like any other accident. He does owe a duty to the person he has hit, but does
that duty extend to you who has not suffered any physical damage? The answer is
in the negative. Generally in the law of tort, you can only extend him having a
duty to you if you were injured. You can claim that it was an economic injury
to you but such economic loss is far too remote and it would lead to absurdity
and opening of the floodgates. If Judges accepted such cases, the poor daladala
driver would have to compensate billions of shillings to all those affected;
both public policy and fairness principles would be defied if that were the
case.
In the upshot and very
unfortunately so, you have no claim against the daladala driver. We are not
aware of any jurisdictions that would allow your suggestion. When you become
President, you might want to consider enacting a special law on this; however
at present the law does not support your thoughts.
Source: FB Attorneys, www.fbattorneys.com,
Dar es Salaam.
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