Law 421 week 2 work
Law 421/Week Two
What are the elements of negligence? How does an intentional tort differ from negligence? Provide examples.
Intentional torts can be described as deliberate acts to harm someone. Negligence can be described to deliberately choose not to act in order to fix a problem which ultimately results in someone being harmed. There are several elements that need to be present in order for a claim to be considered negligence (Melvin, 2011). According to our text these elements need to be present in order to be considered negligence:
Duty: Did the tortfeasor owe a duty of care to the injured party?
Breach of duty: Did the tortfeasor fail to exercise reasonable care?
Cause in fact: Except for the breach of duty by the tortfeasor, would the injured party have suffered damages?
Proximate (legal) cause: Was there a legally recognized and close-in-proximity link between the breach of duty and the damages suffered by the injured party?
Actual damages: Did the injured party suffer some physical harm that resulted in identifiable losses?
(Melvin,2011)
A perfect example would be the case of Stella Liebeck against McDonalds. This is something my wife and I talked about when it first happened. We felt that to sue a company over coffee being hot was absurd. Coffee is typically hot that’s common sense, however after learning how badly Ms Liebeck was injured I have definitely changed my views on this case.
Ms Liebeck spilled her coffee on herself which caused her to get burned. She sustained 3rd degree burns because the coffee was brewed at a higher temperature than other restaurants. The case was ruled in favor of Ms. Liebeck. The jury declared McDonald’s negligent because their coffee was found to be 20 degrees hotter than it should have been. McDonald’s had received many complaints about their coffee being too hot and failed to do anything about it. So their actions were considered to be reckless because they did not warn their customers about the temperature of the
What are the elements of negligence? How does an intentional tort differ from negligence? Provide examples.
Intentional torts can be described as deliberate acts to harm someone. Negligence can be described to deliberately choose not to act in order to fix a problem which ultimately results in someone being harmed. There are several elements that need to be present in order for a claim to be considered negligence (Melvin, 2011). According to our text these elements need to be present in order to be considered negligence:
Duty: Did the tortfeasor owe a duty of care to the injured party?
Breach of duty: Did the tortfeasor fail to exercise reasonable care?
Cause in fact: Except for the breach of duty by the tortfeasor, would the injured party have suffered damages?
Proximate (legal) cause: Was there a legally recognized and close-in-proximity link between the breach of duty and the damages suffered by the injured party?
Actual damages: Did the injured party suffer some physical harm that resulted in identifiable losses?
(Melvin,2011)
A perfect example would be the case of Stella Liebeck against McDonalds. This is something my wife and I talked about when it first happened. We felt that to sue a company over coffee being hot was absurd. Coffee is typically hot that’s common sense, however after learning how badly Ms Liebeck was injured I have definitely changed my views on this case.
Ms Liebeck spilled her coffee on herself which caused her to get burned. She sustained 3rd degree burns because the coffee was brewed at a higher temperature than other restaurants. The case was ruled in favor of Ms. Liebeck. The jury declared McDonald’s negligent because their coffee was found to be 20 degrees hotter than it should have been. McDonald’s had received many complaints about their coffee being too hot and failed to do anything about it. So their actions were considered to be reckless because they did not warn their customers about the temperature of the