contributory negligence

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contributory negligence

n. a doctrine of common law that if a person was injured in part due to his/her own negligence (his/her negligence "contributed" to the accident), the injured party would not be entitled to collect any damages (money) from another party who supposedly caused the accident. Under this rule, a badly injured person who was only slightly negligent could not win in court against a very negligent defendant. If Joe Tosspot were driving drunk and speeding and Angela Comfort were going 25 m.p.h. but six inches over the center-line, most likely Angela would be precluded from any recovery (receiving any money for injuries or damages) from a car crash. The possible unfair results have led some juries to ignore the rule and, in the past few decades, most states have adopted a comparative negligence test in which the relative percentages of negligence by each person are used to determine damage recovery (how much money would be paid to the injured person.) (See: negligence, comparative negligence)

contributory negligence

lack of care by a plaintiff for his own safety. (In the USA the term comparative negligence is sometimes used.) Before the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945, negligence on the part of the party suing was a complete defence, however insignificant it was in the whole picture. The Act allowed a proportion of the damages to be reduced to reflect the plaintiff's fault. Children can be held to be contributorily negligent.

References in periodicals archive ?

To the extent that prior common law rules had been onerous to plaintiffs in denying them monetary damages if contributorily negligent for as little as 1% of the total liability, the law after 1975 remained equally onerous to co-tortfeasor defendants subject to joint and several liability, as defendants found to be at fault for only a minor portion of joint tortfeasors' negligence could still be required to satisfy 100% of the judgments to which plaintiffs were entitled, and subject only to the payors' uncertain right to receive post-payment contribution from other co-tortfeasors.

The extrapolation of defendants' liabilities under CPLR Article 16 where the plaintiff is contributorily negligent: an update toward resolving a perceived ambiguity of CPLR 1601

Deiss, an emergency room malpractice case, the Montana Supreme Court considered a defendant's claim that a young girl with a history of asthma was contributorily negligent for riding a horse while experiencing an asthma attack.

How do I blame thee? Let me count the ways: the 'blame the patient' defense is common in medical negligence cases. But with careful preparation, you can confront it and succeed at trial

Since the plaintiff was not warned of the stroke risk of oral contraceptives or the heightened risk in smokers, it is unlikely she will be found to be contributorily negligent.

Compensatory damages

No matter how often I explained this, she simply refused to accept the law or the possibility that a jury would find her contributorily negligent.

Focus on settlement: using focus groups before mediation can help resolve a case without trial

At trial, the judge found his employer contributorily negligent and liable for thirty percent of his damages.

Limits to employer liability (in drunk driving case)

Whether or not the patient was contributorily negligent in causing his injuries was inadmissible in evidence in this medical malpractice suit.

Court Rejects Contributory Negligence Defense

Patient did not ask about side effects and therefore was contributorily negligent.