MGSC30H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Product Liability, Contributory Negligence, Reasonable Person
Document Summary
Tort of negligence determines whether the defendant can be held liable for carelessly causing injury to the plaintiff. Three required elements to prove are that the defendant: owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, breached the standard of care by acting carelessly, caused harm to the plaintiff. Duty of care exists if the defendant is required to use reasonable care to avoid injuring the plaintiff. This concept is used to control the scope of liability under the cause of action in negligence. Based on donoghue v stevenson courts have developed a unique test for the creation of duty of care: see if any precedents have been set before to determine the duty of care. If both the top conditions exist, the judge can still deny a claim based on policy reasons. It doesn"t matter that the defendant simply didn"t know, but whether a reasonable person would have recognized the possibility.
