Medical negligence as novus actus interveniens: an analysis of the South African delictual jurisprudence

Abstract

The South African Constitution guarantees equal rights to everyone. The right to equality is specifically protected in Section 9 of the Constitution. Section 9(1) states that ‗everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law‘. However, ensuring equality of treatment between the victim of medical negligence and the health service provider has not enjoyed a satisfactory judicial approach. The causes of death or harm suffered by the patient poses a serious problem in the medico-legal investigation. The major focus of this proposed dissertation is the impact on the chain of causation from the victim‘s perspective because of medical negligence and the South African courts‘ approach in such matters. The courts do not seem to have satisfactorily applied the principles of novus actus interveniens in such cases. The proposed research hopes to expose unfair discrimination against the victim of medical negligence through its analysis of the courts‘ approach in medical negligence claims. The approach used by the courts will be critically analysed to determine whether the degree of legal or judicial protectionism in favour of the medical profession is adequate. In recent times, government health service providers have inundated government health departments with claims arising from medical negligence. Although this could seem beneficial from the victim‘s perspective as any relief obtained could be enforced on the assets of the relevant health department, the success level is relatively low as the concept of novus actus interveniens has continued to pose a great challenge to the victim in proving a claim against the medical personnel. This research sought to find out how the protection of victims of medical negligence could be enhanced in spite of the common law defence of novus actus interveniens available to the health service providers.