Chapter 1 Flashcards
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 and civil wrong or injury and is distinct from that under contract that the dug 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
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 their property that the law would presume a consequential damage
Define private and public nuisance
Private-an unlawful interference of a persons enjoyment and use of his or her land
Public- an action or a 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 they provide limited coverage for contractual liability. However contractual liability may be covered in many instances as an additional risk with an additional premium
Define hold-harmless and indemnity provisions
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
Explain in general terms breach of contract
When a party fails to honour its terms, that party is said to be in breach of contract. Breach of contract provides the injured party to the contract with a legal cause of action against the party who failed to perform
Define statute law
A law set down in a government act and passed by legislature
What is each government responsible for?
(Federal, provincial and territorial, and municipal)
Federal-military, foreign relations, currency, and postal services are prime examples
Provincial and territorial- property rights, education, and the regulation of the insurance industry
Municipal- carry out certain functions within their own boundaries to protect persons living and carrying on business in their area
What type of offences are generally referred to as quasi-crimes?
Speeding is not a crime because it is not prohibited by the criminal code of Canada but it is an offence
Explain the difference between criminal law and civil law
Breach of criminal law demands punishment and a breach of civil law demands compensation
Provide facts about the two systems of civil law
Canada’s civil law has historical connections with the two major colonial powers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: England and France
Canada’s two systems of civil law are the Civil code of Quebec and the common law system
Explain Civil Code of Quebec
Covers every area of law from birth certificates to insurance contract, from corporations to mandators, from mortgages to wills
The courts role is to settle disputes according to the specifications set out in the code; it’s role is not to make the law but interpret it
If the code does not cover the material, facts specific to a 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
What type of law supersedes case law?
Statute law when one comes into conflict with the other-if the statue specifically covers the point in dispute
