LAW 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Product Liability, Contributory Negligence, Rodenticide
21 Dec 2016
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Purpose: to compensate for harmful risky actions conducted carelessly but to allow for careful risk-taking. Duty of care (why should the defendant care?) Standard of care (how should the defendant care?) Would reasonable person have foreseen risk that harm would occur: slip and fall on icy sidewalk in front of store. Not subjective: opinion of either plaintiff or defendant does not matter. Commercial (e. g. bar and drunk driver, manufacturer and consumer) Open the floodgates for litigation (e. g. stock market loss) Hurt a valuable type of relationship (e. g. mother and unborn child) Interfere with political decisions (e. g. professional regulatory bodies) Objective test: subjective conduct of defendant does not matter, average, not perfect, so no hindsight application either. Standard is higher than a reasonable person in general. Must act as reasonable professional: no allowance for inexperience, no allowance for exaggerated credentials. Standard may be higher still for specialist or expert: must act as a reasonable expert would act.
