Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Negligence (Causation of the Injury (Proximate Cause: (a negligent…
Negligence
Causation of the Injury
-
Proximate Cause:
-
After establishing the actual cause, the plaintiff also needs to prove the existence of proximate cause
a defendant who has breached a duty of care is liable only for the natural and probable consequences of his action
Despite the existence of actual causation link: the fact that the plaintiff was injured/ the nature of his harm may seem unusual/ in some sense remote from the defendant's breach.
Other method of test: a breaching defendant is only liable to plaintiffs who were 'within the scope of the foreseeable risk‘
Restatement of Tort: not the legal cause of plaintiff's injury if, looking back after the harm, it appears ''highly extraordinary'' to the court that the breach would have brought about the injury
Actual Cause:
To determine the existence of actual cause: ''But for "test. the plaintiff would not have been hurt but not for the defendant's breach of duty
-
Later Acts, Forces or Events
An act, force or events after the defendant's breach of duty may play a significant role in bringing about or worsening the plaintiff's injury
If the acts, forces or events were foreseeable, it will not relieve the defendant of liability
Intervening Cause
If the later acts, forces or events that contribute to the plaintiff's injury was unforeseeable, than it was deemed as intervening cause
exception to the liability-absolving effect: If the unforeseeable later events produces foreseeable harm identical to the harms risked by the defendant's breach of duty
Duty and Breach of Duty
The reasonable care standard: ①the duty to exercise reasonable care ② The defendant has failed to act as a reasonable person would have acted.
The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of reasonable care ① if the plaintiff was foreseeably at risk of harm stemming from the defendant's activities or conduct.
② If a special relationship logically calling for duty of reasonable care existed between the parties.
-
Special duties: When performing their professional duties, they must exercise knowledges, skill and care ordinarily possessed and employed by members of the profession.
-
-
Negligence Defense
Comparative Negligence:Court seeks to determine the relative negligence of the parties and award damages in proportion to the degree of negligence determined.
-
-
-
-