2. A failure to act (an omission) that causes bodily injury to a person and/or physical harm to property.
Example: B is a 50 year old man who appears in generally good health. X is B's doctor. Since B makes no mention of serious symptoms, X does not carry out the diagnostic tests that are considered routine for male patients of this age, including tests for prostate cancer. A year later B is diagnosed with prostate cancer which has advanced to the stage of being untreatable. Had it been diagnosed earlier and treated, B's life expectancy would have been much longer.
Comment: In this case it is not X's positive acts that have caused harm to B, but her failure to act. In cases of a failure to act, a defendant is only liable when the law considers that the defendant had a positive duty to act. Such a duty arises only in special circumstances. These include situations where the plaintiff is reliant or dependent on the defendant to take positive action to avoid potential harm to the plaintiff. The necessary reliance normally exists in a patient and doctor relationship. It has also been held to exist in the relationship between a student and school authority; a prisoner and prison authority; a solicitor and client; and a user of municipal facilities and city council. In the present case, it is likely that X would be liable in Negligence for the physical harm (the effect of the unchecked disease) that B has suffered as the result of his doctor's failure to carry out the normal tests.