PVL 1501 ASSIGNMENT 1

QUESTION 1 (a) Yes, Synthia must register the birth, the Director-General of Home Affairs must be notified of the birth of every child who was born alive, in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992. (b)Yes, Thomas passed away without leaving a will, therefore his estate devolves in terms of the law of intestate succession. Under the rules of intestate succession, a person can only inherit if he or she was already alive at the time of the estate falling open. It is then the nasciturus fiction is employed to protect the potential interests of the unborn child, if the child is born alive, he or she will inherit the as if they were alive at the time of the death. Since the child was alive for a while the application of the fiction will be to the benefit of the nasciturus. QUESTION 2 It is possible that somebody's negligence may cause injuries to the nasciturus before birth. In Pinchin v Santam Insurance, where the facts were like the question under discussion, the court had to answer the question whether a person has an action in respect of injury inflicted on him or her while he or she was still a foetus in his or her mother's womb. In this case the court concluded that a foetus, if negligently injured before birth, may claim damages from the wrongful party. In Pinchin v Santam Insurance the claim was unsuccessful since it was not proved that the cerebral palsy of the foetus had been caused by the injury sustained by the mother1. Should it be proved that Allison’s child's brain damage is the result of the injuries sustained by Mrs Smith during the accident, th