Elements
In order to prove negligence per se, the plaintiff must show that
- the defendant violated the statute,
- the statute provides for a criminal penalty (i.e., fines or imprisonment) but not by civil penalties,
- the act caused the kind of harm the statute was designed to prevent, and
- the plaintiff was a member of the statute's protected class.
In some jurisdictions, negligence per se creates merely a rebuttable presumption of negligence.
A typical example is one in which a contractor violates a building code when constructing a house. The house then collapses, injuring somebody. The violation of the building code establishes negligence per se and the contractor will be found liable, so long as the contractor's breach of the code was the cause (proximate cause and actual cause) of the injury.
Read more about this topic: Negligence Per Se
Famous quotes containing the word elements:
“The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“psychologist
It is through friendships that teenagers learn to take responsibility, provide support, and give their loyalty to non- family members. It is also in teenage friendships that young people find confidants with whom to share thoughts and feelings that they are not comfortable sharing with their parents. Such sharing becomes one of the elements of true intimacy, which will be established later.”
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—David Hume (1711–1776)