Legal Issues in E-Healthcare Systems - E-Healthcare Systems and Wireless Communications - page 45

may be difficult on the part of the consumer to
prove the existence of the defect at the time the
products left the manufacturer's control. In case
of the Donoghue v. Stevenson the containers
were sealed, therefore, it was not a problem to
pinpoint that the defect would have happened in
the factory. However, if it involved a complex
process and more than one product, it would be
difficult to say that the defects had occurred in
certain factory. In Evans v. Triplex Safety Glass
Co.Ltd. [1936] 1 All ER 283, the claim against
the windscreen manufacturer failed because the
plaintiff had not discharged the onus of proving
negligence on the part of the defendant. In decid-
ing a case of negligence the court may consider
the surrounding circumstances. The likelihood of
the consumers loosing the case increases with the
length of time the product was out of manufac-
turer's control before it injured the plaintiff; the
number of other parties who came into contact with
it; and how easily it could have been interfered
with (Howells, 1999).
The longer the product was out of the manu-
facturer's control before it injured the plaintiff, the
harder it would be to prove the case of negligence.
“Reasonable opportunity of intermediate examina-
tion” may exempt the manufacturer from liability.
However, the mere chance of examination of goods
does not, in itself, exempt the manufacturer from
liability. He can be held liable if the defect in goods
remained there, at the time when the plaintiff
used it. Apart from the liability of manufacturer
of product, a component manufacturer also owes
a duty to the consumers.
Apart from this, both hardware and software
failure may cause great loss to the users or to third
parties who relied on the fact that the system should
be reliable. Developers of hardware and software
may be held liable if the product they produce is
defective and the defectiveness was the primary
reason for the damage caused. If a claimant is
injured because of defendant's negligent opera-
tion of his computer system, the claimant may
sue the defendant in negligence. This is because

the defendant will be performing some function
affecting the claimant, and the computer system
will merely be the means by which he performs
the function. In Coastal States Trading v. Shell
Pipeline Corp., Shell Corporation commenced a
specified computerised procedure for submitting
the written request of its customers. Due to data
entry error by a Shell computer employee, the order
of Coastal Company went to another company
and Coastal sued Shell for negligence. The court
examined all the elements of negligence and found
that the defendant owes duty of care to custom-
ers, by not training the employee's adequately,
the plaintiff suffered damage and therefore, the
defendant was asked to pay damages.

Service Providers and
Professional Advisors

There are a number of service providers and the
professionals conducting businesses through the
World Wide Web. There are certain types of com-
panies or individuals who offer only services like
medical advising. There are other types of com-
panies and persons they sell product and provide
installation and consultation services. When such
services and advice given were defective or wrong,
the victimised consumer will be able to bring an
action against the service provider or professional
advisor as the duty owed to the consumers was
not fulfilled. This can be possible irrespective of
the fact that the service providers or professional
advisors had used the end users through electronic
medium. In the case of Howard v. Furness Houlder
Ltd. , the defendants had assembled a valve upside
down in a boiler, were held liable for plaintiff who
was scalded by escaping steam. The installers,
according to the court, had duty to test or inspect
the defects, if the defects were known prior to
installation. The tort liability on service provider
may occur when the negligence of the provider
caused harm in the form of personal injury, death,
or property damage.