negligance chart

Duty of Care

Legal obligation to avoid causing harm to others that may foreseeably result from one’s actions.

Majority Rule

Duty owed only to persons who might be foreseeably harmed as a result of the defendant's negligence.

Minority Rule

Duty owed to everyone on earth if anyone might be foreseeably harmed as a result of the defendant's negligence.

Affirmative Duty to Act

A duty to take action only if there is a special relationship, if the duty is assumed, if the defendant created the peril, or if it is created by contract or statute.

Special Relationships

Relationship types that impose a duty to protect others, such as Parent/Child, Hospital/Patient, and Employer/Employee.

Licensee

A person who enters a property with permission for their own benefit, to whom the property owner has a duty to warn of hidden dangers.

Invitee

A person invited onto property for the benefit of the property owner, who is owed a duty of reasonable care.

Negligence Per Se

A legal doctrine where breach of a statute that was meant to protect a certain class of people can be automatically considered negligent.

Actual Cause

The actual, factual cause of harm; it refers to whether the plaintiff would have been harmed but for the defendant's actions.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

A doctrine allowing for negligence to be inferred from the nature of the accident when it is clear that the harm would not normally occur without negligence.

Proximate Cause

A legal cause that considers whether the harm suffered by the plaintiff was a foreseeable result of the defendant's conduct.

Superseding Cause

An unforeseeable intervening act that breaks the chain of causation and absolves the defendant of liability.

Compensatory Damages

Damages awarded to compensate the injured party for actual losses, including physical harm, property damage, and emotional distress.

Firefighter's Rule

A legal principle that prevents emergency professionals from recovering damages for risks inherent to their job.