Chap.9 quizlet PDF

Preview

Summary

I made my notes into flashcard through Quizlet...

Description

Chap. 9: Negligence and Strict Liability Study online at quizlet.com/_9jyi4l 1.

Defenses to Negligence: • Contributory negligence: Allows defendant to avoid liability by showing that plaintiff's own conduct contributed to plaintiff's harm. • Comparative negligence: Allows apportionment of liability between plaintiff and defendant, according to the degree of responsibility each bears for plaintiff's harm. • Assumption of the risk: Allows defendant to avoid liability by showing that plaintiff willingly engaged in an activity where harm was foreseeable. • Special defenses to negligence include Good Samaritan statutes and establishing a superseding cause. 9

2.

Elements of Causation: Actual cause (cause in fact): Defendant's breach of duty resulted directly in plaintiff's injury; "but for" defendant's breach of duty, plaintiff would not have been injured. • Proximate cause (legal cause): Extent to which, as a matter of policy, a defendant may be held liable for the consequences of his actions; in most states determined by if plaintiff and plaintiff's damages were reasonably foreseeable when defendant breached his duty to plaintiff.

3.

Negligence: Behavior that creates an unreasonable risk of harm to others; the failure to exercise reasonable care to protect another's person or property. Elements of negligence. • Duty: The standard of care a reasonable person owes another (reasonable person standard). • Breach of duty: Failure to live up to the standard of care. • Causation: Actual cause and proximate cause. • Damages: A compensable loss suffered by plaintiff.

4.

Plaintiff's Doctrines: Res ipsa loquitur: Permits judge/jury to infer that defendant's negligence caused plaintiff's harm (in cases with no direct evidence of defendant's lack of due care). A res ipsa loquitur case requires the following proof: • Event was of a kind that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence. • Other responsible causes, including the conduct of third parties and the plaintiff, have been effectively ruled out. • Indicated negligence was within scope of defendant's duty to plaintiff. Negligence per se: Permits plaintiff to prove negligence by offering evidence of defendant's violation of statute enacted to prevent certain type of harm.

5.

Strict Liability: Liability without fault. The law holds an individual liable without fault when the activity in which he or she engages satisfies three conditions: • It involves a risk of serious harm to people or property. • It is so inherently dangerous that it cannot ever be safely undertaken. • It is not usually performed in the immediate community.

6.

Types of Damages: • Compensatory damages: Damages intended to reimburse plaintiff for his/her losses (consistent with purpose of tort law). • Punitive damages (exemplary damages): Imposed to punish the offender and deter others from committing similar acts; usually reserved for cases of gross negligence, involving defendant's extreme, reckless disregard for property/life of others....