DCC 4119 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Die Mannequin, Punitive Damages, Personal Injury
19 Mar 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Legal Liability for Mistakes
November 5, 2018
• What mistakes did we cause, and how much did it cause them?
• Called damages – what kinds are reasonable
• How to decipher all of it
• Fault causing $ damages = negligence, liability, contractual liability, tort law
• Go through the same sentence – but the beginning of the story changes
• Either we had a contract and something went wrong, or there was no contract and something went wrong
• Either way, something went wrong and cost someone damages
• S. 1457 and 1458
o Most quoted sections in Quebec
o Tort law – legal liability or civil liability
o Every person – body corporate or human – has duty to abide by the rules of contract
o Not looking for physical injury – looking for dollar amounts
o How much did you have to spend
o Liable means responsible – pay from your pocket
o Every person has a duty to honour his contractual undertakings – you signed the contract, post up
o Failure to perform what you promised to perform in the contract
o Liable for any injury he causes and bound to make reparation for the injury
• Prove that the person was negligent then you have proved the fault
• Fault is also failure of the duty of care
• Failure of a duty that a reasonable person should have known
• Always fact based – intentions are not important
• No fault insurance – people who drive in my province and cause damages are not at fault for civil damages – BC has this, for
example – insurance pays without faults
• Damages – also called injury or loss
• Necessary and fundamental – no damages, no case
• Personal injury – i.e. bodily or moral – must be severe
• Moral injury – pain and suffering or defamation – feelings have been hurt
o Serious defamation i.e. loss of reputation that is serious – sometimes paid
o Still looking for loss of money – is your malicious statement the cause that they do not get as many clients as before
o Example of weather woman who made a mistake but a radio host started making fun of her on his show everyday –
she ended up leaving her job for a year and the company sued the radio host – she won pain and suffering and
defamation
o If it is truth, it is not defamation
• Bodily injury – broken arms, legs, noses, loss of bodily parts, etc. – s. 1614 – refers you to legislation that talks about loss of
body parts called An Act Respecting Industrial Accidents
o Covers the Civil Code and the no fault insurance for cars – legislated body parts in Quebec
o It is a fixed amount based on a table
• Damages in case of death – term used – compensation to the deceased’s family
o If you cause damages to someone and they die – first immediate damage is the funeral costs
o Can’t sue someone if they don’t have the money to pay for it, it’s not worth it – so you usually don’t see civil trials
for death
• S. 1621 – exemplary and punitive damages – must have evidence of willing to cause harm
• Property damage – material injury
o Loss of use of property
• Things usually get settled before taking it all the way through trial
• You must absolutely have an equation that those damages are the direct result of that negligence (fault)
• S. 1607 and 1611
o S. 1607 – two reasons – damages must be direct and immediate consequence of the fault
o S. 1611 – certainty and provable – future damages ex. Loss of job
• S. 1614 – body parts – see regulation – won’t be question on body parts*
• S. 1616 – loss of harm must be translated in cash – it is an obligation
• S. 1595 and 1596 – must give notice of default saying you screwed up, you owe me money, pay me
• S. 1617 has interest rate and date where it begins
• S. 1621
• Liquidated damages – the amount has been determined
• S. 1623 the court will set it aside if it is abusive as determined
• Exceptions
