Tort; Negligence; causation of harm; liability for harm occurring in an unexpected way.
Facts: Akhtar, an Indian Muslim from Fiji, was injured by falling goods while shopping in Kavanagh's shop. Akhtar suffered permanent and painful injury to her left arm. As a result she could no longer look after her long hair, and, without consulting her husband, she cut it. This greatly upset her husband's religious and cultural beliefs very greatly, and caused a rapid and catastrophic deterioration of their relationship. As a result, Akhtar became depressed to the point of psychiatric illness.
Issue: Was the psychiatric harm suffered by Akhtar the kind of harm that was reasonably foreseeable as a consequence of Kavanagh's negligence?
Decision: The psychiatric harm was reasonably foreseeable.
Reason: Mason P said (at 602):
"It was perfectly foreseeable that a severe and continuing shoulder injury would affect a plaintiff's capacity to attend to matters of personal hygiene and adornment, particularly in a context where she was a homemaker. And it was equally foreseeable that this would put a strain on marital relations, as it certainly did in the months prior to the hair cutting incident. That such strain might lead to a severe breakdown of that marital relationship with extreme psychiatric consequences for a vulnerable plaintiff was also foreseeable. The fact that the breakdown occurred in consequence of a perhaps unforeseeable step taken by the respondent (cutting her hair) or the perhaps unforeseeable reaction of her husband is irrelevant …"