Negligence and Duty of Care
Melissa Senft
Business Law LS311-01
July 13, 2014

While accidents happen every day there is always the potential for a lawsuit. When deciding if litigations are something that is necessary in your case, it is important to know (from a legal standpoint) if you have a case or not. There are a few factors that need to be met in order to establish negligence, and to determine if you are entitled to a remedy. Let us look first at what negligence means in the court of law. Negligence is when there is an injury based on an individual (or company’s) inability to meet (or exceed) duty of care (Jentz, 2008). This term, negligence, basically means carelessness or aperture from obligation. There are a couple different types of negligence, and it is important to know the difference. Criminal negligence, the failure to use reasonable care to avoid consequence that threaten or harm the safety of the public and that are foreseeable outcome of acting in a particular manner (legal-dictionary.com). An example of criminal negligence would be a mother leaving her young children in a car during the summer months. We all know that the car will overheat, and this will result in harm happening to the children. Then, there is civil negligence. Civil negligence, also known as civil liability, is when a person is negligent or careless and causes harm to another person. This person is known as the victim and is legally able to sue. There is a major difference between criminal negligence and civil negligence. Civil negligence, the responsible party is liable for payment; while, criminal negligence the responsible party can face criminal charges and is open to punishment (legal-dictionary.com). Since Yvonne Esposito, the 80-year-old woman who was hurt decided that she was going to file a negligence lawsuit, let’s look to see if she has a case. Jason Davis stood near an exit, turned around, and knocked down Ms. Esposito. Was Jason Davis negligent in turning around and knocking Ms. Esposito over? I would have to agree that his negligence did lead to her falling over. However, I would also have to argue that her contributory negligence could have led to her falling. Contributory negligence is when the plaintiff was partly responsible for her own injuries (rotlaw.com). It could be argued that Ms. Esposito was following too closely behind Mr. Davis. When Mr. Davis turned around, suddenly or not, he was unable to avoid bumping into Ms. Esposito. Ms. Esposito did suffer a major injury in the accident, breaking her hip. After hip replacement surgery she was left with a physical impairment. Should Mr. Davis be held liable for this? It could be argued that due to his negligence the accident happened. The result of the accident was a broken hip, hip replacement surgery, and a permanent disability. While the combination of the negligence, on both of their parts led to the injury, Mr. Davis should only be held partially responsible. Also, it is important for Mr. Davis’s defense