James worked at a building firm ('M.U.G. Builders) as a roofer.  As such he works very closely with other workers on any given building site. Towards the end of last year, he noticed that, increasingly, the firm was starting to cut corners.  One day the roofing team needed to reinforce a roof they were repairing.  James was instructed by the firm's foreman Zach to use a lower (and hence cheaper) grade of industrial nails for nailing down the roof tiles, and also to do without certain safety measures.  When James pointed out that this would mean compromising the safety of both the workers as well as the finished product, he was told by Zach to 'shut up and do as you are told'.

 

As a result of the disregarded safety measures, the roof disintegrated while James was working on it, and James fell more than three storeys.  He was seriously injured. His spine was broken, and he will never be able to walk again.

 

On the day that James fell, Sujeeva, James's wife, was waiting for him in their car inside the building site next to the house that was being roofed.  Sujeeva was waiting for James as over lunchtime they had planned to go to the hospital for a sonar scan as Sujeeva was pregnant with their first child. Under normal circumstances she would not have been allowed on the building site but with the firm's recent lax attitude to safety measures, nobody stopped her from parking right next to the house.  When the roof collapsed, she witnessed her husband getting injured.  A large chunk of the roof and supporting wall fell on the car Sujeeva was sitting in.  She managed to get out just in time - if she had stayed in the car, she would have been crushed. 

 

Nevertheless, due to the shock of seeing all of this, Sujeeva suffered a miscarriage and lost the baby.  She also developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. 

 

Discuss all the issues in tort that arise from the above scenario. Refer to English case law.

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