Based on the facts given by Mr Boyle you could plead the defence of contributory negligence of the plaintiff In order to plead this defence you should fulfilled the elements of the this contributory negligence defence The first element is the plaintiff is not required to have a duty of care to you The duty of care is upon himself to act reasonably so as to avoid damage to himself According to the case of Jones v Livox Quarries Ltd it was held that the plaintiff does not need to have a duty of care towards the defendant as the duty carried out by the plaintiff should practiced correctly to avoid any damages against himself 3 The second element of contributory negligence would be the plaintiff has failed to make reasonable care of himself by behaving unreasonably This is where the plaintiff failed to take reasonable steps to take care of himself or avoid himself from getting injured In the case of Foong Nan v Sagadevan The Chief Justice Malaya H T Ong said that contributing negligence means the failure by a person to use reasonable care for the safety of himself contributing by his way of care to his own injury In the case of Lai Yew Seong v Chan Kim Sang the Supreme Court in holding the plaintiff 100 contributorily negligence means the failure by a person to use reasonable care for the safety of himself or his property so that he becomes the author of his own wrong 4 The third element is the act or omission must be the cause of plaintiff injury which must be of a type reasonably foreseeable from his act or omission
