A private psychiatric clinic owes the patient a contractual duty to take all the protective steps required by the gravity of his condition. Third parties who suffer loss can claim only in delict, but need prove no more than that their loss was caused by the breach of the contract with the patient.
A patient injured by falling in the doctor’s surgery has no claim if there is nothing wrong with the equipment or the premises and the doctor is not at fault.
A hospital is strictly liable for any infection the patient contracts there, and a doctor who fails to inform the patient of the risk of such infection is liable for the loss to the patient of the chance of avoiding it, the damages in the latter case being a proportion of all the consequent damage, not merely loss of amenity and pain and suffering.
Since a curative establishment is strictly liable to its client for its premises, apparatus and personnel, its only defence when the baths burn down is force majeure, as regards which the civil court is not bound by any finding of a criminal court.
A dentist is strictly liable if the prosthesis he recommends and supplies is dangerous, and the patient is not at fault unless warned of the dangers of using it.
A person displeased with the results of cosmetic surgery to which she has agreed with knowledge of its risks must pay the surgeon unless he was at fault.