When individuals are discussing a potential claim to one of our attorneys, they regularly say: “He was negligent!” But, they don’t know exactly what negligence is and how it may or may not apply to their situation. If you research definitions of negligence, you’ll find definitions that simply say “failure to do something.” The law is much more complex than that and in this blog I will explain exactly what is negligence in the context of the law. There are four basic components of negligence we’re going to discuss:
- Was there a duty owed?
- Was there a breach of that duty?
- Was the breach of the duty the proximate & actual cause of injuries?
- What were the damages caused?
The first big issue we deal with is “do you have a duty to act?” For example, if you’re sitting poolside and you see somebody in the water drowning, you generally have no legal duty to help. It’s unfortunate and as a human being, you definitely should help. But from the law’s perspective, you’re not obligated to help. However, there are exceptions.
For example, had you created that dangerous condition by pushing somebody into the pool, you do have a duty to help because you started the chain of events.
Not everyone has the same duty. If you were hired as a lifeguard, you had a contractual duty to help, so thus you have to help. You entered into a voluntary agreement to perform the duties of a lifeguard, which includes saving a drowning person.
Another example is a statutory obligation to help. Mandatory reporting is an example. If you’re a teacher or a nurse and you see evidence of child abuse, you have a statutory obligation to help. There is a legislative responsibility inherent to your job. Who exactly is held to this standard may change from state to state, but in California, teachers, teacher’s aides, employees of day camps and youth centers, social workers, physicians, and clergy members all have statutory obligations.
To summarize, a duty generally arises from your own conduct, from a contract or because of a statutory obligation. Unless one of those is applicable, you don’t have an obligation to help, but hopefully you would.
Once you’ve established a duty, now the question is: “Did you breach that duty?” Your duty is to act as “a reasonable person would in the same or similar circumstances.” This phrase defines the scope of your duty.
Again, if you’re sitting poolside and someone is drowning, you have a duty generally to act as a “reasonable adult” would. You don’t have any special training, and so the fact that you couldn’t do CPR or didn’t do CPR may not be a problem because only a reasonable person standard is required. However, if you’re a contracted lifeguard, the reasonable lifeguard would know CPR and thus would have to act as a reasonable lifeguard and perform CPR. So this standard can be defined differently based on who the individual is at play.
Likewise, “the same or similar circumstances” is important criteria. If you are a doctor that has all the time in the world to examine a patient, then your duty is to do a thorough exam. That is much different than if you’re an emergency room doctor after a large train wreck and you’re running from patient to patient trying to help as many as possible. The circumstances are different and therefore the nature of the duty is different. So, a duty is breached if you fail to act as a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances.
The third issue in a negligence claim is “were your personal injuries actually proximately caused by the breach of the duty?” For example, if you’re in a car accident and you hit your head and you wake up in the morning, and now you’re nauseous, there’s a good chance that the nauseousness was caused by the head injury. Those are biologically often related, so that would be something that was caused by the accident. However, if you wake up in the morning nauseous and it was caused by the flu, that wasn’t something that was caused by the car accident but rather other factors and as such that would not be sufficient in a negligence claim as part of your damages.
The fourth element is you have to have damages that are significant. You can bring a claim for some really small technical damages, but why? You want to bring a claim only if you have something that changed your life or had a major impact in your life. For example, if you go to a pharmacy and they give you the wrong prescription, do you have a claim for negligence? Well, obviously the pharmacist had a duty to act as a reasonable pharmacist and fill the prescription correctly. They breached that duty and gave you the wrong drug. If that breach caused some injuries, such as it caused you to fall asleep early and be drowsy the following morning, but you stopped taking it before any further damage happened, technically you have a claim for negligence. But do you really have damages worth bringing a claim? If as soon as you stop taking the drug you went back to normal and it was only for a couple of days, that’s not really the kind of claim that’s going to support a lawsuit or a claim, as a general rule.
Conversely, if he gave you Penicillin and you’re allergic to Penicillin and you find yourself hospitalized and having major repercussions as a result, that would be serious damages and thus would support a claim for negligence.
When beginning to determine negligence in your case, refer back to these factors. If you’d like to explore your situation further, contact an attorney. Knowing these concepts will help you prepare to talk through your situation.
If you’re in Northern California, I encourage you to reach out to our firm. The attorneys at Eason & Tambornini, ALC have handled cases involving negligence for over two decades.
