Torts: class 14

Transcript

1. CLASS 14 •Wrap up res ipsa loquitur & duty/breach •Causation •Introduction •Actual cause •The “but-for” test •Alternatives to but-for causation
2. RES IPSA LOQUITUR •Krebs v. Corrigan
3. WRAP UP: BASICS OF CALIBRATING DUTY •Default: reasonable care under the circumstances •To calibrate: the fictional reasonably prudent person •Who knows •What the defendant actually knows •And what a reasonable person under the circumstances would know
4. WRAP UP: BASICS OF CALIBRATING DUTY •Superior intelligence/skill/experience: circumstance •Physical disability: circumstance •But: mental disability •For children: youthfulness = circumstance (unless adult/inherently dangerous activity)
5. WRAP UP: BASICS OF CALIBRATING DUTY •Extraordinarily dangerous activities: certainly a circumstance, but juries don’t need a special instruction •… but sometimes juries might: sudden emergency
6. WRAP UP: ASSESSING BREACH OF DUTY •Basic considerations •The Hand formula & what it represents •A shortcut for specifying duty & establishing breach: negligence per se •Custom •Res ipsa loquitur
7. THE HAND FORMULA: B < PL
8. CAUSATION •Element of π’s prima facie case •So π must establish causation by preponderance of the evidence •Two aspects •Actual causation •Proximate causation
9. ACTUAL CAUSATION •The usual standard: the but-for test •Cay v. Louisiana •Lyons v. Midnight Sun Transportation Services •East Texas Theatres, Inc. v. Rutledge
10. WHEN THE BUT-FOR TEST BREAKS •Multiple sufficient independent causes •Kingston v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway •Alternative liability •Summers v. Tice •Burke v. Schaffner