Risk Management and Legal Concepts
Negligence is failure to act with reasonable care in circumstances where any reasonable person could have exercised. To determine a prima case of negligence, five elements are required (Deakin, Angus & Basil, 2003). First, there must be a legal duty to exercise reasonable care. The stadium has a legal duty to exercise reasonable care to ensure that fans do not get injured. The concessionaire also has a legal duty to ensure that the beers brought to the stadium do not cause any harm. Second, there must be a breach of duty whereby the person under duty to exercise reasonable care failed to exercise it. The stadium and the concessionaire breached its duty by failing to take reasonable care to ensure that there were no spillages in the stadium. Third, there must be factual causation. This is proof that the failure to exercise duty of care resulted into an injury to the claimant. The failure to get rid of the spillages on the concourse caused the fan to fall down and break her leg. Fourth, there must be physical harm in terms of actual damages. The physical harm sustained by the fan is the leg injury. Lastly, there must be a proximate cause that shows the harm in the scope of liability. There are financial and indirect losses that arose from the broken leg, which was caused by the failure of the stadium and the concessionaire to exercise reasonable care.
There are various defenses to the tort of negligence (Klar & Rainaldi, 1995). The first defense is contributory negligence. This can be pleaded where the plaintiff did not act as a reasonable person in a situation that he could have acted. The stadium and the concessionaire cannot win in this defense because it is not common knowledge that all stadiums are always messy with kegs. The second defense is voluntary assumption of risk. Neither the stadium nor the concessionaire can succeed in this defense because the plaintiff did not know that such risks as spilled beer would be expected in the stadium. Thus, the fan would succeed in the suit because the stadium and the concessionaire were negligent
References
Deakin, S. Angus, J. & Basil, M. (2003). Markesinis and Deakin’s Tort Law. Oxford University Press.
Klar, L. & Rainaldi, L. D. (1995). Negligence. Carswell.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]