Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is the most common way the law imposes liability?
Finding that someone has committed a tort (a wrongful act) due to negligence which results in damage or injury to another
Define tort
A legal wrong arising from a duty fixed by law. A breach of this duty that causes injury to a persons or property is repressible by legal action for damages. Liability for tort involves a private or civil wrong or injury, and is distinct from that under contract in that the duty is owed to people generally rather than to a specified individual.
Define negligence
Failure to use the degree of care expected from a reasonable and prudent person
Define nuisance
In law, a class of wrong that arises out of unreasonable, unwarranted, or unlawful use by a person of his or her own property whether that property be real or personal, or from his or her own improper, indecent, or unlawful personal conduct and producing an annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort or hurt to others, or to the property that the law would presume a consequential damage. In insurance claims it is most frequently met as a cause of action, arising from the escape of some obnoxious substance.
Explain breach of contract
When a party to a contract fails to honour its terms, that party is said to be in breach of contract. Breach of contract provides the injured party to a contract with a legal cause of action against the party who failed to perform. The most important factor of someone being in breach of contract is that it Hass to be a fundamental and important part of the contract
Define private nuisance
An unlawful interference of a person’s enjoyment and use of his or her land
Define public nuisance
An action or thing that interferes with the general public. It interferes with the public as a class not merely with one person or a group of citizens.
Define contractual liability
Liability assumed through a contract either written or implied. Legal liability policies are based on liability in tort or negligence and provide limited coverage for contractual liability. However, contractual liability may be covered in many instances as an additional risk with additional premium.
Define hold-harmless
A contractual agreement, whereby one party assumes the liability and risk of another party, and indemnifies the other party from having to bear the loss
Define statue law
A law set down in a government act and passed by legislation
Explain quasi-crime and give an example
Something that is not prohibited by the criminal code of Canada, but is an offence
Example: speeding
Explain the difference between criminal law and civil law
Criminal law seeks to determine guilt, civil law provides a jurisdiction for whom to assign fault by developing and interpreting common law principles and applying relevant statue law. The criminal court seeks to punish an offender by imprisonment or fine or some other appropriate method. The civil court is concerned with setting appropriate compensation for the damages suffered and then obliging the liable party to pay this sum to the injured party
Explain civil code of Quebec
It covers every area of law from birth certificates to insurance contracts, from corporations to mandators, from mortgages to wills. The court’s role is to settle disputes according to the specifications set out in the code; its role is not to make the law, but interpret it. If the code does not cover the material facts specific to given situation the courts will apply the general principles of justice set out in the code
Define common law
A system of laws originating and developed in England by judges based on court decisions and similar tribunals. Also known as case law or the law of precedent
Explain case law precedent
Case law is not of itself a branch of law. It is merely the recording (in writing) of decisions made in court.
