Study 11: Liability Claims - Key terms

Question 1

Personal liability

Answer 1

Liability insurance for an individual’s personal liability exposures such as premises, personal activities, some contracts, and certain incidental coverages. This insurance does not include automobile liability or business-related losses.

Question 2

Dwelling

Answer 2

A shelter intended or used as a space in which people live.

Question 3

Premises

Answer 3

A building, including the land immediately surrounding it and belonging to it.

Question 4

Legal liability

Answer 4

Liability imposed by law on individuals or corporations to pay for harm done to others. Such law may be the common law, statute law, or customs that over a period of time have taken on the same status as law. Legal liability may also be assumed under the terms of a contract.

Question 5

Negligence

Answer 5

Failure to use the degree of care expected from a reasonable and prudent person.

Question 6

Nuisance

Answer 6

In law, a class of wrong that arises out of unreasonable, unwarranted, or unlawful use by a person of his or her own real or personal property 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.

Question 7

Tort

Answer 7

A legal wrong arising from a duty fixed by law. A breach of this duty that causes injury to 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 liability under contract in that the duty is owed to people, generally, rather than to a specified individual.

Question 8

Tortfeasor

Answer 8

A wrongdoer; a party guilty of a tort.

Question 9

Defendant

Answer 9

In civil matters, the person or organization that is being sued.

Question 10

Plaintiff

Answer 10

The party who brings a legal action against another, called the defendant.

Question 11

Compensatory damages

Answer 11

A sum of money to which a plaintiff is entitled that makes amends for an actual loss sustained and nothing more.

Question 12

Special damages

Answer 12

Actual loss from the natural, not the necessary, consequences of the subject of complaint; for example, specific payments for medical bills or car repairs. In third-party claims, it means the damages that may be proved with documents.

Question 13

Economic loss

Answer 13

Damages or loss that can be quantified in money. Also known as pecuniary loss.

Question 14

General damages

Answer 14

Damages awarded by a court of law for the pain and suffering of an individual; applied in a third-party injury claim.

Question 15

Occupant

Answer 15

One who has a right because of possession in or control over certain property or premises; one who acquires title by occupancy; a person who lives in or is the established user of a place such as a home or office or automobile; includes the driver who is in or on a vehicle or getting into, on, out of, or off a vehicle.

Question 16

Attractive nuisance

Answer 16

A legal tort doctrine that holds that any person who has or creates any condition on their premises, private or public, that may reasonably be considered to pose a danger to children and at the same time attract them (to it) has a duty to take precautions as a reasonable person would do to prevent injury to minors of tender years.

Question 17

Licensee

Answer 17

A person who has permission to enter a premises for his or her own purposes.

Question 18

Invitee

Answer 18

A person who is expressly or impliedly invited onto the premises for some purpose involving economic or potential economic benefit to the occupier of the premises. For example, a customer entering a store for the purpose of making a purchase.

Question 19

Contractual entrant

Answer 19

A person who enters onto premises under a contract with the occupier; for example, a hotel guest or a theatre-goer.

Question 20

Burden of proof

Answer 20

The standard by which a claim must be proven to prevail. The burden of proof is typically borne by one party or another.

Question 21

Bailee

Answer 21

In contract and property law, one to whom goods or property are entrusted for a stated purpose. Can be either gratuitous (for no consideration) or for hire (for consideration).

Question 22

Strict liability

Answer 22

Liability imposed by a court or by a statute in the absence of fault when harm results from activities or conditions that are extremely dangerous, unnatural, hazardous, extraordinary, abnormal, or inappropriate.

Question 23

Absolute liability

Answer 23

Liability associated with very dangerous actions. Often found in cases involving explosives and in many automobile laws. Negligence does not have to be proven.

Question 24

Scienter (scienti non fit injuria)

Answer 24

Actual or presumed degree of knowledge that makes a person legally responsible for his or her actions or failure to act. For example, owner of a vicious dog is deemed to know of its disposition and to properly secure it from causing damage or injury to others. Latin for “knowledge.”

Question 25

Assumption of risk

Answer 25

(1) A legal doctrine where a person knows of the facts and existence of a dangerous condition and voluntarily exposes herself to it. Also known as “volenti non fit injuria.” (2) The accepting of a risk by an insurance company.

Question 26

Contributory negligence

Answer 26

Many accidents are the partial fault of both parties who are involved in the accident. The plaintiff who sues another party for damages may also be guilty of some negligence, which is a concurrent cause of the damage, and is therefore guilty of contributory negligence.

Question 27

Hold-harmless agreement

Answer 27

An agreement that allows one party to protect another party against any future losses or claims that may result from a particular activity. Also known as an indemnity agreement.

Question 28

Indemnitee

Answer 28

The person or organization who is held harmless in a contract (by the indemnitor)

Question 29

Waiver

Answer 29

The intentional and voluntary relinquishment of a known right. A waiver under a policy is required to be clearly expressed and in writing.

Question 30

Tutor (or curator)

Answer 30

Person who is the legal guardian of another person