Negligence

Introduction

Negligence is the most important tort in American law. A negligence claim requires proof of four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. The plaintiff must establish that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, that the defendant breached that duty by failing to conform to the required standard of conduct, that the breach caused the plaintiff’s injury, and that the plaintiff suffered actual damages. Negligence law balances the interests of injured plaintiffs in compensation against the interests of defendants in avoiding liability for accidents.

Duty of Care

The threshold question in any negligence case is whether the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. The general rule is that every person owes a duty to act with reasonable care to avoid foreseeable harm to others. The duty analysis considers the foreseeability of harm, the relationship between the parties, and public policy considerations.

In Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co. (1928), the New York Court of Appeals held that duty is limited to foreseeable plaintiffs. The case involved a passenger who dropped a package of fireworks that exploded, causing scales at the far end of the platform to fall on Mrs. Palsgraf. Chief Judge Cardozo held that the railroad owed no duty to Mrs. Palsgraf because the harm to her was not foreseeable from the guard’s conduct.

The Reasonable Person Standard

The reasonable person standard is the objective test for determining whether the defendant breached the duty of care. The jury asks whether the defendant acted as a reasonable person of ordinary prudence would have acted under similar circumstances. The reasonable person is a hypothetical construct —careful, prudent, and attentive to risk, but not perfect.

Certain actors are held to specialized standards. Professionals (doctors, lawyers, architects) are held to the standard of care of a reasonably skilled professional in the same field. Children are generally held to the standard of a child of similar age, intelligence, and experience. Common carriers and imkeepers are held to a higher standard of care.

Breach

Breach is the failure to exercise reasonable care. The determination of breach is typically a question for the jury. The court may direct a verdict if the evidence is such that reasonable minds could not differ. The Hand formula, articulated in United States v. Carroll Towing Co. (1947), provides that breach exists if the burden of adequate precautions (B) is less than the probability of harm (P) times the magnitude of the loss (L): B < PL.

Proof of breach may be established by evidence that the defendant violated a statute. The negligence per se doctrine provides that the violation of a safety statute establishes breach if the plaintiff is within the class of persons the statute was designed to protect and the harm is of the type the statute was intended to prevent.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Res ipsa loquitur (“the thing speaks for itself”) allows the jury to infer negligence from the circumstances of the accident. The doctrine applies when: the accident is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence; the instrumentality causing the injury was within the defendant’s exclusive control; and the injury was not caused by the plaintiff’s own conduct. Res ipsa loquitur creates an inference of negligence that the defendant must rebut.

Causation

Causation has two components. Actual cause (cause in fact) is determined by the but-for test: but for the defendant’s negligence, the plaintiff would not have been injured. When multiple causes combine to produce the injury, the substantial factor test may be used. Proximate cause (legal cause) limits liability to harms that are reasonably foreseeable consequences of the defendant’s conduct.

Damages

The plaintiff must prove actual damages to recover in negligence. Damages may be economic (medical expenses, lost income, property damage) or noneconomic (pain and suffering, emotional distress). Nominal damages are not recoverable for negligence unless actual damages are shown.

Conclusion

Negligence law provides a framework for allocating the costs of accidental injuries. The elements of duty, breach, causation, and damages, the reasonable person standard, and the doctrines of res ipsa loquitur and proximate cause structure the analysis. Negligence remains the most litigated tort and a central feature of American personal injury law.