Warranties, Negligence, and Liability: Chapter 7

Question 1

What are the five elements a plaintiff must prove to win a negligence case?

Answer 1

Duty of Due Care, Breach, Factual Cause, Foreseeable Harm, Injury

Question 2

Who has the lowest liability when it comes to the landowner’s duty?

Answer 2

Trespassers

Question 3

Occasional liability in regards to a landowner’s duty?

Answer 3

Children (even if trespassers)

Question 4

Higher liability to a landowner’s duty?

Answer 4

Licensee, anyone on the land for her own purposes but with the owner’s permission

Question 5

Highest liability to a landowner’s duty?

Answer 5

Invitee.

Question 6

“reasonable person” standard

Answer 6

a defendant breaches his duty of due care by failing to behave the way a reasonable person would under similar circumstances (reasonable means someone of the defendant’s occupation)

Question 7

negligence per se

Answer 7

when a legislature sets a minimum standard of care for a particular activity, in order to protect a certain group of people, and a violation of the statute injures a member of that group, this is what the defendant has committed

Question 8

Superseding Cause

Answer 8

an event that interrupts the chain of causation and relieves a defendant from liability based on her own act

Question 9

Res ipsa loquitur

Answer 9

a doctrine of tort law holding that the facts may imply negligence when the defendant had exclusive control of the thing that caused the harm, the accident would not normally have occurred without negligence, and the plaintiff played no role in causing the injury

Question 10

compensatory damages

Answer 10

an amount of money that the court believes will restore him to the position he was in before the defendant’s conduct caused in injury

Question 11

punitive damages

Answer 11

money intended not to compensate the plaintiff but to punish the defendant

Question 12

contributory negligence

Answer 12

a rule of tort law that permits a negligent defendant to escape liability if she can demonstrate that the plaintiff’s own conduct contributed in any way to the plaintiff’s harm

Question 13

comparative negligence

Answer 13

a state in which a plaintiff may generally recover even if she is partially responsible

Question 14

assumption of the risk

Answer 14

a person who voluntarily enters a situation that has an obvious danger cannot complain if she is injured

Question 15

strict liability

Answer 15

a tort doctrine holding to a very high standard all those who engage in ultra hazardous activity (e.g., using explosives) or who manufacture certain products

Question 16

What are the two main areas of business that incur strict liability?

Answer 16

ultra hazardous activity and defective products

Question 17

ultra hazardous activity

Answer 17

conduct that is lawful yet unusual and much more likely to cause injury than normal commercial activity

Question 18

tort

Answer 18

a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.