Negligence

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Negligence
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• Negligence (unintentional tort)----
• the unintentional causing of harm that could
  have been prevented if________.
• (the defendant had acted as a reasonable and
  prudent person)
• Negligence exists when four conditions are met
• D must have owed P a duty
• D must have breached the duty
• P must have suffered a legally recognizable
  injury
• The breach of duty must be the actual and the
  legal cause of the plaintiffs injury.

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• 2. If a plaintiff wants to win and recover in a
  negligence suit, what must he prove?
• The existence of duty
• The breach of that duty
• Injury to the plaintiff
• Causation between the negligent conduct and the
  injury

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• Duty
• The law of negligence measures duty by an
  objective, yet flexible, standard of
  conduct----__________________. (the reasonable
  person standard)
• The reasonable person standard
• ---- a reasonable person of ordinary prudence in
  similar circumstances
• This standard is objective because the
  reasonable person is a hypothetical person who is
  always thoughtful and cautious and never
  unreasonably endangers others.

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• Breach
• A person is guilty of breach of duty if he
  exposes another to an unreasonable, foreseeable
  risk of harm.
• Cases
• (1)If Wilson is carefully driving his car within
  the speed limit and has a heart attack that
  causes him to lose control and crash into a car
  driven by Thomas, is Wilson liable?
• Wilson would ordinarily not be liable to
  Thomas for his injuries. The accident is not the
  result of any breach of that duty because it was
  unforeseeable.

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• (2) If Wilsons doctor has advised him that he
  had a heart condition that made driving dangerous
  and then the above situation happens, is Wilson
  liable?
• His failure to heed his doctors warning
  would probably amount to a breach of duty because
  he was plainly exposing others to foreseeable
  risk of harm by driving.

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• Injury
• (1) Statements (T or F)
• ____ Negligent conduct alone is tortious.
• ____ Without injury, there is no recovery.
• (2)To recover damages in a negligence case, the
  plaintiff must prove there is a legally
  recognizable damage, or injury to him.

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• (3) If a plaintiff can prove the following kinds
  of injuries----
• (a) some impact or contact with the
  plaintiffs person ,
• (b) some serious physical injuries or symptoms
  resulted form the plaintiffs emotional distress
  or
• (c) emotional harms,
• which one is more easily compensated?

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• A. Courts have great reluctance to impose
  liability for purely emotional harms caused by
  intentional wrongs (e.g., Infliction of Emotional
  Distress).
• B. It might be correctly assumed that an even
  greater reluctance would exist when the conduct
  producing an emotional injury was merely
  negligent.

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