Negligence

Negligence (Lat. negligium, from neglegerium, to neglect, literally "not to pick up something") is a failure to exercise the appropriate and or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by failing to act as a form or multiple forms of carelessness, .. Although, not always identified as (necessarily) intentional harm.

According to Jay M. Feinman of the Rutgers University School of Law:

"The core idea of negligence is that people should exercise reasonable care when they act by taking account of the potential harm that they might foreseeably cause to other people."

Someone who suffers loss caused by another's negligence may be able to sue for damages to compensate for their harm. Such loss may include physical injury, harm to property, psychiatric illness, or economic loss. The law on negligence – when one person can sue another person in negligence – is not possible to define in general terms. It can depend on the kind of loss, the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, and other factors.

Some things must be established by anyone who wants to sue in negligence. These are what are called the "elements" of negligence.

Some say there are three elements – conduct, causation and damages. Most say there are four – duty, breach, causation, and damages – or five – duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages. Each is correct depending on how much specificity is needed. "The broad agreement on the conceptual model", writes Professor David W. Robertson of the University of Texas at Austin, "entails recognition that the five elements are best defined with care and kept separate. But in practice", he goes on to warn, "several varieties of confusion or conceptual mistakes have sometimes occurred."

The legal liability of a defendant to a plaintiff is based on the defendant's failure to fulfil a responsibility, recognised by law, of which the plaintiff is the intended beneficiary. The first step in determining the existence of a legally recognised responsibility is the concept of an obligation or duty. In the tort of negligence the term used is duty of care

The case of Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] illustrates the law of negligence, laying the foundations of the fault principle around the Commonwealth. The Pursuer, May Donoghue, drank ginger beer given to her by a friend, who bought it from a shop. The beer was supplied by a manufacturer, a certain David Stevenson in Scotland. While drinking the drink, Donoghue discovered the remains of an allegedly decomposed snail in the bottle. She then sued Stevenson, though there was no relationship of contract, as the friend had made the payment. As there was no contract the doctrine of privity prevented a direct action against Stevenson.

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Wikipedia