NEGLIGENCE

Negligence

Negligence

Introduction

The law of negligence requires individuals conduct themselves in a manner that conforms to certain standards of conduct. When this is violated against someone, the law requires the negligent person to compensate the injured person as a result, sometimes even covering omissions (Lehr, 2004, 55). The main element of this law include:

1. a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff

2. a breach of that duty

3. damages resulting from the defendants conduct

Duty of Care

In some lawsuits, courts have to decide if the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff in the first place. Such a duty would arise when the law recognizes a relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff and due to this; the defendant is obligated to the plaintiff to act in a certain way per the standard of care.

Breach of Duty

A defendant is liable for negligence when the defendant breaches the duty the defendant owes to the plaintiff by failing to exercise reasonable care in fulfilling the duty. A jury on the question of fact decides the issue of whether the defendant breached a duty to the plaintiff.

Damages

Plaintiff's in negligence cases must prove a legally recognized harm usually in the form of physical injury to a person or property. It is not enough the defendant did t exercise reasonable care, the failure to exercise reasonable care must result in actual damages to a person to whom the defendant owed a duty of care.

Negligence

The tort or delict of being careless in breach of a duty to take care. The distinction to be made is between the act or omission itself, which is not enough to create legal liability: for this there must be a breach of pre-existing duty of care. Such a duty can exist on the basis of precedent, as, for example, a doctor to a patient or a carrier to a passenger, or can arise through the proximity or relationship of the parties. The categories of negligence are never closed and have been extended to cover liability for negligent misstatements or foreseeable mental harm. For the tort to be established, the breach of the duty by the act or omission must also have caused a loss, although if the loss is a pure economic loss there are difficulties (Ronald, 2001, 165).

The search for proximity or a suitable relationship between the parties is aided by the notion of reasonable foreseeability of harm of the kind that occurs. But this is not enough on its own to establish liability in every case, although in cases of physical injury or damage to the plaintiff 's property it is likely to carry the plaintiff a long way. Negligence in the non-technical sense may well trigger liability under a statute that demands a certain degree of care to be taken.

Torts were not considered a discrete branch of law until the late nineteenth century. Tort law is a law that deals with the reparation of damage. But, nevertheless, at times, when the repair thereof is difficult, the law allows ...