Although the distinction may at times be difficult to draw, there

is an important difference in tort law between "careless acts causing personal

injury, for which the law generally imposes liability, and careless omissions to

prevent acts [by a third party] … for which the common law generally imposes no

liability".46 Modbury is an illustration of the latter.47 The present case is an instance

of the former. In a case such as the present, an intervening action of a third party

will not negate liability in negligence "if the intervening action was in the ordinary

course of things the very kind of thing likely to happen as a result of the

defendant's negligence".48