Q&A – 28 April 2014
Kids photo in school publication
My son goes to a premier school in Dar whereby the school gives an option to parents if they want or don’t want their child’s photo in the schools advertising material. Due to personal reasons I did not want my child’s photo published but was shocked to see that the school went ahead and published it. I approached an aggressive head teacher who told me off and actually started questioning why I even had declined in the first place. What should I do? Can they fire my child because of my refusal?
TI, Dar
You have a cause of action against both the school and the aggressive head teacher. If you had declined for the photo to be published, your child’s rights to privacy amongst others are to be fully respected. The fact that the head teacher is trying to dilute this situation does not change the fact that the photo was published when you did not want it to be.
Depending on how aggressive you want to be, we don’t see much of a reason to kowtow the head teacher. Put the school on notice immediately that they should not circulate the publication and that they should recall those that are in circulation (very difficult to do). If they don’t comply, you can proceed file a suit against the school. Amongst your prayers in the suit should be that the school be directed in a specific manner and that you be compensated financially for the harm done to you.
As to whether they can fire your child because of this, the answer is that they absolutely cannot. In the event they do, the school will not get sympathy of any magistrate or judge in such a matter. Consult your lawyer for more details.
Beauty product burns skin
I visited a mall in Dar where there was a team of people giving out skin whitening cream for free. I used the product which permanently burnt the lower part of my face. I don’t know who the distributor is but the manufacturers contact is on the packing. My lawyer says that I need to know who gave me the product to establish a cause of action but I am unable to recall the name of the distributor. My lawyer seems to think that I don’t have a contract with the seller as it was free, meaning the quantum of damages will suffer. Please guide me as I seriously want to take someone to task?
JF, Dar
It is true that you do not have a contract with the seller but that does not stop you from suing the distributor and/or manufacturer for this faulty skin product. In fact, the quantum of damages might actually end up being higher than under a contract so this is not a deterrent in any way whatsoever.
Your rights as a consumer are fully protected under principles of tort in law. The manufacturer had a duty of care towards you, he breached that duty resulting in this damage to you. We believe you should proceed directly against the manufacturer whom you have managed to identify. Your lawyer can guide you further.
Urinating in swimming pool
I use a swimming pool in a certain gym everyday. My question is whether it is an offence to urinate in the pool. The pool is huge and I don’t see why some small portion of my urine will affect the water quality. Is there an issue with urinating in the pool? I don’t want to be in breach of any law.
VO, Dar
Whether there is an explicit law or not, by urinating in the pool you are in breach of basic principles of hygiene and we recommend you immediately stop.
Furthermore under our health laws, it is a breach to contaminate such water, and your consistent and/or intentional urinating into the pool is very likely contaminative.
We cannot make sense of your argument on the dilutive nature of your urine. Imagine if all pool users urinated every hour- at the end of the day the colour of the water might also change.
A large number of our legal team are ardent swimmers and very curious to know which pool you use. We hope you will stop this unhealthy habit and if you have a condition with your bladder, you should get it sorted out at the earliest. Otherwise your habit is a criminal offence and you can be charged and fined and/or imprisoned.
Computer software malfunctioned
I bought an accounting software online which has an error in it. It overstates profits, and doesn’t capture all expenses. The software looks very good when you purchase it; one only realizes these errors when you start using it. With my profits suddenly looking good, I was making investments in other areas only to get into a cashflow crunch. What should I do?
WR, Dar
The first thing you need to do is change the software. Problem with buying products online is that the quality control test is sometimes hard to perform, although before buying products you can review other users’ experiences.
You do have a cause of action against the maker and seller of the software but we are not sure how successful your recovery will be. It depends on where the supplier company is registered and whether it exists at all. We recommend that you consult your lawyers to do some research for you.