The diver’s injury from a defective steering wheel meets proximate cause. According to Melvin and Katz (2015), proximate cause is met when a breach of duty occurs in the closest proximity of the incident and without an unforeseen event that cancels out liability. In the case of the accident, proximate cause is met because a motorist being involved in an accident is not an unreasonable occurrence. In addition, the steering wheel manufacturer is held at a strict liability due to the manufacturing of goods for consumers. According to Stewart (2016), a manufacturer is liable for injuries when the product is proven defective and is unreasonably dangerous. For example, in West v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., Inc., West, who was a dealer of Caterpillar’s products, claimed that because manufacturers imply their products are safe, the manufacturer holds the burden of liability. Moreover, the plaintiff must prove the manufacturer’s relationship to the defective product, the dangerous condition, and proximate cause of related injuries. In the case of the driver suing the manufacturer of the steering mechanism, the plaintiff must prove the manufacturer produced the defective mechanism, the reason the mechanism caused the injury, and proximate cause. A likely defense from the manufacturer will be the cause of the motorist’s accident. However, vehicle accidents are not outside the scope of a likely event; therefore, the plaintiff will have a strong case.
Question 2: A tenant hurts herself falling down defective steps. The tenant sues the landlord’s insurance company, alleging that they knew the steps were defective but insured him anyway, thus discouraging him from fixing them.
The tenant’s injury is does not meet proximate cause to the insurance company’s product.
According to Melvin and Katz (2015), proximate cause relates to the nearest breach of duty associated with the harm. In other words, the acts of intervening negligence from the landlord exempts the insurance company’s proximate cause, thus causing liability to fall upon the landlord. Moreover, the property owner’s duties include notifying guests of hazards, duty to inspect, and duty to repair defects. Various state laws require property owners certain
Contributory Negligence: A court may find a plaintiff contributory negligent or partially responsible for their injuries.
Had he been wearing the safety belt, he would not have been killed. The second defense that Ford Motor Company has is that the purpose of a car is to drive it and not to crash a car so that it spun. Since, the door flew open during a spin, Ford Motor Company was not liable for the death of Chancit. The normal use of a car is not to send it into a spin. The third defense that Ford Motor Company has is that Chancit was suffering from food poisoning and was unwell, that was why he was thrown out of the car. The fourth defense is that the car is meant for normal driving. The safety measures in the car were adequate for normal driving. Since, Chancit was driving in a closed lane and possibly at a speed that was higher than that permitted, Ford Motor Company was no liable. III. The City of Los Angeles is liable of negligence. The sign board it placed said Left lane closed ahead, whereas, it was Right lane closed ahead. The City of Los Angeles had a duty of care to ensure that it placed the correct signs so that motorists were not misguided. There was a breach of duty because the City of Los Angeles placed the wrong sign and this misguided Chancit into an accident. There was direct cause between the placement of the wrong sign and the accident that killed Chancit. There was legal causation. Chancit suffered harm because he was killed. In other words, the City of Los Angeles is guilty of negligence. The court will rule in favor of Chancit and award his widow
The question this week deals with product liability, on the ground of strict liability. Bob was shopping at Carl’s Hardware store. One of Carl’s employee’s named Dan was using a nail gun and it fired without warning. A nail struck Bob in the leg. After checking the nail gun Carl discovers the manufacture, Eagle Tools, Inc., improperly assembled the tool. Bob files a suit against Eagle Tools, Inc, for product liability, on the ground of strict liability. The elements for action based on strict liability will be covered, who the court will like rule in favor of, and why in the following paragraphs.
Where an insurer denies a claim and fails to provide funding for repairs, the insured is excused from failing to make repairs as soon as reasonably possible under the prevention doctrine. This is the recent holding of the California Court of Appeal in the case of Stephens & Stephens XII, LLC v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. (2014) 231 Cal.App.4th 1131.
If the commissioner 's actions caused by his breach of duty link to the damages suffered, the plaintiff’s party must also prove proximate cause, the fourth element of negligence. The two key concepts of proximate cause are that the tortfeasor’s conduct was the closest in to proximity to the damages and that there was no superseding causes that could cancel out the tortfeasor’s liability. In determining proximate cause, courts use foreseeability in defining the scope of risk. Given the statistics of an average of 1,750 injuries per year, the commissioner could have foreseen the possibility of injuries to MLB fans (Gail Payne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (MLB), 2015). However, proximate cause cannot prevail as an element of proof because there are multiple superseding causes of these injuries that cancel the commissioner 's liability. One superseding cause would be the pitcher throwing a ball in a certain way, combined with the batter’s action of swinging the bat. This forced the ball and/or bat to exit the field of play, injuring the plaintiffs. Another superseding cause is the section the plaintiffs decided to purchase tickets. In this case, tickets purchased in an exposed section along the first base line are more dangerous than those covered by protective netting.
Cause in fact occurs when the defendant's action is the actual result of the plaintiff's injury (Stapleton, 2011). The presence of this element can ordinarily, but not always, be determined by asking the "but for" question, that is, by asking whether or not but for the defendant's negligence the plaintiff would not have been injured. Meanwhile proximate cause refers to the foreseeability of the plaintiff's injuries. If plaintiff's injuries are remote or far removed from the
The issue in this case as it relates to the Kentucky tort of negligence is governed by rules or principles established by the courts. The elements of negligence are a duty the defendant owes to the plaintiff, a breach of that duty by the defendant, a causal connection between the breach and the plaintiff's injury, and actual injury. In the absence of any one of these elements, no cause of action for negligence will lie.
Whether the breach of duty has caused the plaintiff’s injury is the third element of negligence. Requirements for causation are causation in fact and proximate cause. Causation in fact is determined by the “but for” test, which means if it was not for the defendant’s breach of duty, harm or injury would not have occurred. Proximate cause is when the connection between the action (breach of duty) and the injury is strong enough to impose liability. Another issue that needs to be considered is foreseeability because the defendant’s action must have created a foreseeable risk of injury. In this case, the crew of Titanic was navigating the ship during the night at high rate of speed in water with
The plaintiff’s cause of action in this case would be the failure of Porsche to properly supply the 2005 Carrera GT with proper crash preventative measures and passenger safety features to protect the passengers of the car in the foreseeable event of a car crash. As a whole the case would be classified as alleged product liability negligence against Porsche, for failing to provide an electronic stability control system to protect against swerving to prevent crashes in a car that is advertised as a street legal race car. Also for providing side door reinforcements that fall below mass produced vehicles standards due to lack of proper welds and the poor strength of the material used, therefore inadequate to ensure safety of car passenger in the event of a crash. Lastly, for allowing a faulty gas line to be implemented in their
If the commissioner 's actions caused by his breach of duty are linked to the damages suffered, the plaintiff’s party must also prove proximate cause, the fourth element of negligence. The two key concepts of proximate cause are that the tortfeasor’s conduct was the closest in to proximity to the damages and that there was no superseding causes that could cancel out the tortfeasor’s liability. In determining proximate cause, courts use foreseeability in defining the scope of risk. Given the statistics of an average of 1,750 injuries per year, the commissioner could have foreseen the possibility of injuries to MLB fans (Gail Payne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (MLB), 2015). However, proximate cause can not be proven because there are multiple superseding causes to these injuries that cancel the commissioner 's liability. One superseding cause would be the pitcher throwing a ball in a certain way, combined with the batter’s action of swinging the bat. This forced the ball and/or bat to exit the field of play, injuring the plaintiffs. Another superseding cause is the section the plaintiffs decided to purchase tickets. In this case, tickets purchased in an exposed section along the first base line are more dangerous than those covered by protective netting.
Presented are four separate cases that have been argued and settled in a court of law. Each of these cases represent a different kind of tort, a tort is a civil wrong or wrongful act, which can be either intentional or accidental, from which injury occurs to another (Hill & Hill n.d.). The torts are as listed, intentional, criminal, negligence, and liability as presented in the four researched cases.
There was no defence for defendant because there was no any voluntary assumption and contributory negligence by the plaintiff. Plaintiff didn’t fully understood and took the risk by himself and not even he contributed himself to take that injury.
The main idea of the law of negligence is to ensure that people exercise reasonable care when they act by measuring the potential harm that may foreseeably cause harm to other people. Negligence is the principal trigger for liability to ascend in matters that deal with the loss of property of personal injury. Therefore, a person cannot be liable for something unless they have been found negligent or have contributed to the loss of property or injury to the plaintiff (Stuhmcke, 2005). There is more to
Chapter 12 section 5 states that “negligence occurs when someone suffers injury because of another’s failure to live up to a required duty of care.” (Cross & Miller, 2012) The duty of care that the driver had was to obey the traffic laws. He neglected to obey such laws which ended in an injury to the driver of the truck. There are four elements to negligence. These elements are duty of care, breach, causation and damages.
Car accidents can happen to drivers anytime, anywhere. "According to the National Safety Council, which stated that more than 2.5 million collisions back every year, making it the most common type of car accidents, it is also known that the accident rear end as incidents of injury, because the nature of the collision leads often in whiplash injury the driver in the car in front and about 20% of people who participated in a rear collision injury symptoms of this kind. ", (NHTSA, auto-accident-resource.com). Among the car accidents, the teenage group is the only age group who is number of deaths is increasing instead of decreasing. Also, all the people are exposed to risk and actually every one of them has got car