LAW 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Learned Hand, Reasonable Person, Contributory Negligence

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Law and Business
• Course: LAW 122
• Professor: Stan Benda

Document Summary

Purpose to compensate for harmful risky actions conducted carelessly, but to allow for careful risk taking. Slip and fall on icy sidewalk in front of store. Opinion of either plaintiff or defendant does not matter. Commercial: bar and drunk driver, manufacturer and consumer (donoghue) Open the floodgates for litigation: stock market loss. Hurt a valuable type of relationship: mother and unborn child. Reasonable person test: how defendant with duty must act, how would a reasonable person act in this situation, subjective conduct of defendant does not matter, average, not perfect, so no hindsight application either. Determination of reasonable standard based on risk management. Courts compare s to r and decide. P probability of harm if risk occurs. It is reasonable to spend r as long as r <= pxl. It is reasonable not to spend r if r> pxl. It is reasonable to spend up to . It is reasonable not to spend more than .