Unit 4: Regulation and Dispute Resolution

1. Unit 4: Regulation and Dispute Resolution Day 6: Contractual Obligations and Torts Part 2

2. Negligence and Unintentional Torts • As we’ve seen many times before, a tort is harm caused to a person or property for which the law provides a civil remedy. • Unintentional torts arise from injuries caused by an accident or action that was not intended to cause harm. • Most unintentional torts are caused by negligence. • Negligence is the carelessconduct that causes foreseeable harm to another person.

3. Each person is required to show a duty of care. • A duty of care is the obligation to foresee and avoid careless actions that might cause harm to others. • Everyone has the duty of care to everyone else under the Neighbour Principle.

4. The Neighbour Principle is the responsibility to owe a duty of care not to harm one’s neighbour by being careless or negligent. • As reasonable people (ordinary people of normal intelligence), we need to anticipate the consequence of an action.

5. A standard of care is the degree of caution or level of conduct expected of a reasonable person. • In some cases there is a specialized standard of care which means that some people, because of their training, are held to a higher duty of care. • For example, a doctor has a higher duty of care than an ordinary person. • Rescuers or Good Samaritans have a low standard of care because society wants to encourage people to help those in trouble.

6. Causation is the connection between someone’s actions or inactions and someone else’s injuries. • Defenses include remoteness of damage and intervening act. • For example, if the injury would not have been caused “but for” the defendants actions, such as not providing someone with a lifejacket on a boat.

7. Remoteness of damage means that harm could not have been foreseen by the defendant due to the lack of close connection between the wrong and the injury. • Intervening act is the unforeseeable event that interrupts the chain of events started by the defendant.

8. Liability Under the law of negligence, there are several types of liability. Product Liability • The area of law that deals with negligence on the part of manufacturers.

9. Occupiers Liability • responsibility of owners or renters to ensure that no one entering their premises is injured. • Trespassers are not covered under this liability.

10. Vicarious Liability • Legal responsibility for the negligence of another person. • For example, if a mechanic fails to properly fix your brakes and you have an accident, the mechanic and his employer could be held liable for the accident.

11. Strict Liability • The defendant is automatically liable for an injury caused by a dangerous substance or activity even if the defendant was not negligent. • For example, this is often used in cases of environmentalspills.

12. Defenses to Liability Contributory Negligence • negligent acts by the plaintiff that helps cause the plaintiff’s injuries Voluntary Assumption of Risk • The defense that no liability exists because the plaintiff agreed to accept the risk normally associated with the activity.

13. Waiver • A document signed by the plaintiff, releasing the defendant from liability in the event of an injury. Inevitable Accident • A defence that claims an accident was unavoidable due to an uncontrollable event. Act of Nature • a defense that claims an accident was caused by an extraordinary, unexpected natural event.

14. Explanation • a defense that claims the accident occurred for a valid reason even though the defendant took every precaution. Statute of Limitations • A law that specifies the time which legal action must be taken. • Generally 2 years throughout Ontario.