Introduction to the Common Law of Torts

Question 1

What are the major purposes of tort law?

Answer 1

1. To provide a peaceful means for resolving disputes about harm between parties who might otherwise “take the law into their own hands”;
2. To deter wrongful conduct;
3. To encourage socially responsible behavior;
4. To restore injured parties to their original condition, insofar as the law can do this, by compensating them for their injury; and
5. To vindicate individual rights of redress

Question 2

What is ordinary care?

Answer 2

Means that kind and degree of care, which prudent and cautious men would use, such as required by the need of the case, and such as is necessary to guard against probable danger (Brown v. Kendall)

Question 3

When can’t a plaintiff not recover?

Answer 3

1. Plaintiff and defendant were using ordinary care;
2. Defendant was using ordinary care but plaintiff was not;
3. Both the plaintiff and defendant were not using ordinary care
   (Brown v. Kendall)

Question 4

What constitutes a pure accident?

Answer 4

Such an accident as the defendant could not have avoided by the use of the kind and degree of care necessary to the need, and in the circumstances in which he was placed (Brown v. Kendall)

Question 5

What is negligence based upon?

Answer 5

It is based upon the defendant’s recklessness when they knew or should have known they might suffer an event which may cause an accident (Cohen v. Petty)

Question 6

What is strict liability?

Answer 6

Liability that does not depend on proof of negligence or intent to harm but that is based, instead on a duty to compensate the harms proximately caused by the activity or behavior subject to the liability rule (Spano v. Perini Corp.)