Business Law Test #2

Proximate Cause

Legal cause. It exists when the connection between an act and an injury is strong enough to justify imposing liability.

Strict Liability

Liability regardless of fault, which is imposed on those engaged in abnormally dangerous activities, on persons who keep dangerous animals, and on manufacturers or sellers that introduce into commerce defective and unreasonably dangerous goods.

Malpractice

Professional misconduct or the lack of the requisite degree of skill as a professional. Negligence on the part of a professional, such as a physician, is commonly referred to as malpractice.

Duty of Care

The duty of all persons, as established by tort law, to exercise a reasonable amount of care in their dealings with others. Failure to exercise due care, which is normally determined by the reasonable person standard, constitutes the torts of negligence.

Negligence

The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances.

Product Liability

The legal liability of manufacturers, sellers and lesser goods for injuries or damage caused by the goods to consumers, users, or bystanders.

Reasonable Person Standard

The standard of behavior expected of a hypothetical "reasonable person". It is the standard against which negligence is measured and that must be observed to avoid liability for negligence.

Assumption of Risk

A defense to negligence that bars a plaintiff from recovering for injuries or damage suffered as a result of risks he or she knew of and voluntarily assumed.

Res Ipsa Loquiatur

A doctrine under which negligence may be inferred simply because an event occurred, if it is the type of event that wouldn't occur in the absence of negligence. Literally, the term means "the facts speak for themselves.

Business Invitees

A person, such as a customer or a client, who is invited on to business premises by the owner of those premises for business purposes.

Unreasonably dangerous product

A product that is so defective that it is dangerous beyond the expectation of an ordinary consumer or a product for which a less dangerous alternative was feasible but the manufacturer failed to produce it.

Contributory Negligence

A rule in tort law, used in only a few states, than completely bars the plaintiff from recovering any damages if the damage suffered is partly the plaintiff's own fault.

Comparative Negligence

A rule in tort law, used in the majority of states, that reduces the plaintiff's recovery in proportion to the plaintiff's degree of fault, rather than barring recovery completely.

Good Samaritan Statue

A state statue stipulation that persons who provide emergency services to, or rescue, someone in peril cannot be sued for negligence unless they act recklessly and cause further harm.

Dram Shop Act

A state statue that imposes liability on the owner's of bars and taverns for injuries resulting from accidents caused by intoxicated persons when the sellers or servers of alcoholic drinks contributed to the intoxication.

Causation in Fact

An act or omission without which an event would not have occurred.

Negligence Per Se

An action or failure to act in violation of statutory requirement.