This document defines key legal terms related to negligence, including tort, negligence, plaintiff, defendant, proximate cause, duty of care, and breach of duty. It provides definitions for each term in 1-2 sentences. The document is organized with term headings that link to brief definitions.

2. Negligence Parties Doctrines Misc.
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3.  Tort

4.  What is a wrongful act or an omission,
other than a crime or a breach of
contract, that invades a legally
protected right.
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5.  An obligation imposed by law for the
preservation of the legally protected
rights of others.

6.  What is a legal duty?
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7.  Negligence

8.  What is the failure to exercise the degree
of care that a reasonable person in a
similar situation would exercise to avoid
harming others?
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9.  What is the reasonable person test?

10.  A standard for the degree of care
exercised in a situation that is measured
by what a reasonably cautious person
would or would not do under similar
circumstances.
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11.  Plaintiff

12.  Who is the person or entity who files a
lawsuit and is named as a party?
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13.  Tortfeasor

14.  Who is a person or organization that has
committed a tort?
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15.  The party in a lawsuit against whom a
complaint is filed.

16.  What is a defendant?
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17.  Bailee

18.  What is the party temporarily possessing
the personal property in a bailment?
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19.  An act that is considered inherently
negligent because of a violation of a law
or ordinance.

20.  What is negligence per se?
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21.  The control of only one person or entity;
in tort law the control by the defendant
alone of an instrument that caused
harm.

22.  What is exclusive control?
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23.  A legal doctrine that provides that, in
some circumstances, negligence is
inferred simply by an accident occurring.

24.  What is res ipsa loquitur?
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25.  The failure to conform to the standard of
care required in the situation.

26.  What is breach of duty?
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27.  Proximate cause

28.  What is a cause that, in a natural and
continuous sequence unbroken by any
new and independent cause, produces
an event and without which the event
would not have happened?
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29.  Intervening act

30.  What is an act, independent of an
original act and not readily foreseeable,
that breaks the chain of causation and
sets a new chain of events in motion that
cause harm?
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31.  Foreseeability rule

32.  What is a rule used to determine
proximate cause when a plaintiff’s harm
is the natural and probable
consequence of the defendant’s
wrongful act and when an ordinarily
reasonable person would have foreseen
the harm?
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33.  Concurrent causation doctrine

34.  What is a legal doctrine stating that if a
property loss can be attributed to two or
more independent concurrent causes—
one or more excluded by the policy and
one covered—then the policy covers the
loss?
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