Negligence - Scope of Liability (Proximate Cause) - Scope of Risk Flashcards
Scope of Risk
The harm that resulted from the risks that made the defendant’s actions negligent
Old/Traditional Liability Definition
Liability for negligence is liability for the unreasonable risks the defendant created, not for reasonable risks or for those that were unforeseeable.
New Lability Definition (Risk Standard)
An actor’s liability is limited to those physical harms that result from the risks that made the actor’s conduct tortious. Restatement (Third)
Thompson v. Kaczinski
In Iowa, a case should go to trial when the plaintiff’s harm could have fallen under the defendant’s tortious act. Defendants left trampoline parts unsecured in their yard. Wind blew the parts into the road and Plaintiff ran into a ditch to avoid them. Lower courts granted summary judgment for defendants.
Foreseeability Test
Liability must be rejected unless a reasonable person would have reasonable foreseen and avoided the harm of the same general nature actually suffered by the plaintiff.
Abrams v City of Chicago
Proximate Cause
In Illinois, there is no proximate cause when a pregnant woman gets hurt in an accident after an ambulance refused to take her to the hospital. A friend took Plaintiff to the hospital. Substance impaired driver hit them and Plaintiff lost her baby because of the treatment she needed for her injuries.
Direct Cause of Unforeseen Harm
Sometimes older cases allowed liability for unforeseen harms that were a direct cause of the defendant’s actions. This is still used by some courts.
Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.
Reasonably Affected Area
A plaintiff’s injury does not fall under the defendant’s scope of liability when the plaintiff is not in an area that the risk/harm would reasonably affect. Defendant’s helped a customer onto a train in a way that the customer dropped his package, fireworks wrapped in newspaper. They exploded and Plaintiff got hurt at the other end of the station because of it.
Liability to a Class of People
Defendants are only liable for harm done to a class of people what a reasonable person would foresee the risk harming
Rescue Doctrine
A rescuer can recover from a defendant who negligence prompts the rescue if the rescuer has a reasonable belief that the victim was in peril. This includes cases where the defendant negligently harms or endangers herself and the plaintiff is injured in trying to rescue the defendant.
Violation of Statute
If a plaintiff is harmed because the defendant violated a statute, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant violated the statute and his injury was caused by exposure to a risk the statute meant to protect him from
