Understanding the Basic Elements of a Negligence Claim

The majority of our clients’ cases are based on a type of personal injury claim called "negligence." This brief article will outline the basic elements an injured person must prove in order to prevail in a negligence claim.

The tort of negligence has five basic elements: 1) duty, 2) breach of duty, 3) actual cause, 4) proximate cause, and 5) damages. We will consider each in turn.

• Duty: A victim of a defendant’s negligence can sue successfully only if the defendant had a “duty of care” to act responsibly toward the victim. The most common duty of care is the defendant’s duty to act like a “reasonably prudent person under the circumstances.” For instance, if someone drives a car, he has a duty toward the other drivers on the road to drive like a reasonably prudent driver.
• Breach of Duty: This element of the claim of negligence means a plaintiff must prove that the defendant’s act which injured him or her was done while behaving with less than the required “reasonably prudent person” standard of care. To use the driver example, the plaintiff has to show that the driver drove more dangerously, under the circumstances, than a reasonable prudent driver would have.
  Sometimes an injured plaintiff cannot find evidence of how a defendant breached its duty. In this situation, a plaintiff may get around this problem by using the legal doctrine of “res ipsa loquitur,” which means “the matter speaks for itself.” For this doctrine to apply it must be the type of injury or accident that does not normally occur in the absence of negligence and the instrumentality causing the injury must be in the exclusive control of the defendant. For example, consider a patient who undergoes an operation and the doctors leave surgical equipment in his body. Since he was under anesthesia, he cannot testify about exactly how the doctors breached their duty. “The matter,” however, “speaks for itself.” When doctors act prudently, they do not leave their equipment in patients’ bodies. “Res ipsa loquitur” means that the plaintiff need not prove exactly how the defendant breached his duty.
• Actual Cause: The plaintiff must show that “but for” the defendant’s breach of their duty of care, the injured plaintiff would not have been harmed. There may be many actual causes of an injury, but even if there are intervening events that occur between the defendant’s breach of their duty of care and the injury, as long as the injury would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s negligence, the element of “actual cause” is met.
• Proximate Cause: An injured plaintiff must show that he or she was a foreseeable victim of the defendant’s negligence, such that the court will consider it fair to hold this defendant liable for the plaintiff’s injuries. For example, if someone drives negligently, causing an accident involving several cars, that driver is the proximate cause of the other drivers’ injuries because it is foreseeable that someone who drives negligently will injure the drivers and passengers in nearby cars.
  The most famous example of a breach of duty which was not the proximate cause of someone’s injuries is Mrs. Palsgraf’s case against the Long Island Rail Road. There, an LIRR employee helped someone running after a departing train to get into the train. In doing so, he knocked a small paper bag out of the man’s hand. Unbeknownst to him, the bag contained dynamite which exploded, creating a shock wave that knocked over a faraway scale on the platform, which injured Mrs. Palsgraf. The court held that Mrs. Palsgraf’s injury was not foreseeable, nor was it fair to hold the LIRR responsible for such a remote injury because the employee’s conduct was not the “proximate cause” of her injuries.
• Damages: Even where a defendant acts wrongfully by breaching a duty toward potential victims and the plaintiff is actually and proximately injured by that conduct, he still has to prove damages. Types of damage include medical expenses, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life and pain and suffering.

There are many other detailed rules regarding these elements and many potential defenses which defendants’ insurance companies and lawyers can raise, so it is important to seek out an experienced personal injury law firm.

Contact the Nassau and Suffolk Personal Injury Lawyers at Rosenberg & Gluck

The Suffolk County personal injury attorneys at Rosenberg & Gluck are experienced with all different types of negligence claims, including medical malpractice, automobile accidents, construction accidents, premises liability claims and others. Give us a call if you are injured in any way. Personal injury is all we do. For a free initial consultation, contact us or call our office at 631-451-7900 .