Nandini Warrier 26 January 2021
A person who has an understanding of terms regarding traffic rules, decided to cross the road at a certain time, even though the roads were fairly busy with vehicles, and was hit by a vehicle driven by a rash driver. Can the rash driver, to avoid liability claim volenti non fit injuria or plaintiff the wrongdoer as a defence here? Or will it be taken as contributory negligence?
Mansi Aggarwal 23 February 2021
Hello, thank you for your query.
Volenti non fit injuria can be applied if the victim of such a wrong gives his consent to the commission of such an act and such consent must be free for the successful application of this defense in a case. In this case, the person who was crossing the road did not consent to get hit by a rash driver.
In volenti non fit injuria, plaintiff knows the nature and extent of danger which he encounters but in case of contributory negligence, he did not know about any danger.
The driver was rash, therefore he cannot use the defense of volenti non fit injuria. If the driver was driving by adhering to all norms, he could have claimed it. Therefore this is a case of contributory negligence.
Hope this helps you.
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