Property negligence

Property negligence

Negligence

Negligence imposes liability for loss or injury caused by carelessness. Two central questions arise, which are:

•
what constitutes carelessness?
•
when is liability not imposed even though the defendant was careless?

The courts use the concept of 'duty of care' to answer both questions. The concept has three parts:

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foreseeability—are the defendant’s acts potentially harmful to those whom a reasonable person would have foreseen as likely to be adversely affected by such action?
•
proximity—is the relationship between the parties significantly close?
•
fairness—is it 'fair, just and reasonable' to impose liability on the defendant?

On establishing that a duty of care exists, it is then necessary to consider whether or not there has been a breach of that duty. The law adopts the artificial objective standard of the reasonable person, taking into account four factors:

•
probability—a

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