... v Pitwood (1902) where the defendant was accused of manslaughter because he failed to close a level crossing gate with the result being that a hay cart and a train collided resulting in the death of a man. The court said that an omission to discharge a contractual duty might give rise to liability for failure of an act. Another duty that can occur is that by virtue of relationship. This could be a relationship such as parent/child, or husband/wife etc. In a parent/child relationship, the parent is under a duty to care for their child. A breach of a parent's duty to care for his or her child may found liability. In R v Gibbons and Proctor (1918) a man was charged with murder after her father and the woman starved a child to death. They were both charged with murder. The court said that Proctor had voluntarily taken ...

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