Negligence Law In General
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Negligence law is a major component of tort law and a cornerstone of personal injury law. The requisite elements of Negligence are 1. Duty 2. Breach 3. Proximate Cause 4. Damages.
Negligence –one who owes another a duty of care (with respect to the conduct alleged to be negligent) & who breaches that duty is (in the absence of affirmative defense) liable for all damages proximately caused by the breach.
Ordinarily one owes a foreseeable Plaintiff a duty of care. Ordinarily that duty is to refrain from conduct that a reasonable person under similar circumstances would have known was subjecting others to an unreasonable risk of harm (i.e. would have known that the risk of harm created by his/her conduct was greater than the utility of the conduct).
Was there a duty & what was the duty? How do you breach the duty?
Were there damages proximately caused by defendant's conduct?
Hypo: A friend is at your house who believes he is having a heart attack. The Hospital is 1 mile away and you get into an accident driving on wrong side of highway while taking your friend to the hospital. Are you negligent? What are the risks and utilities? Were your friend's damages proximately caused by your conduct? What is the liablity to other parties injured as a result of the accident?
Ordinary Negligence
1. was Defendant negligent Plaintiff
2. does Defendant owe Plaintiff a duty (foreseeable Plaintiff some kind)
3. duty what is pro or ord & refrain
4. breach was there risk utility
5. is Defendant conduct proximate cause of injury
6. a cause in fact but for analysis
7. policy reasons a) Unforeseeable injury b) Unforeseeable intervening force
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