Question

Tom had the toy he had dreamed of all his life. A brand new red Mustang with a convertible top and the biggest V8 ford makes. The car is loud, and most important, fast, and Tom likes to push the car as fast as it can go. One bright and sunny Saturday, Tom has his new car out on some country roads. With no one around, Tom is roaring down straightaways and around corners. Blasting down one long stretch of road doing 105MPH the speeding car and loud engine started a young horse on a farm by the road. The horse broke through a fence then and in a panic knocked over a sign that feel into the road. Fifteen minutes later Jerry, driving the speed limit down that same road, runs over the sign in the road and loses control of his car. The accident causes serious injuries. Jerry would like to sue Tom for negligence. List the elements for negligence and what facts present would allow Jerry to meet each element. Also, Identify any defense that Tom might make.

Answer 1

The claim of negligence includes the following four elements=

(1) duty, (2) breach, (3) cause in fact, and (4) harm

(1) duty= When it comes to the element of duty, it as the duty of Tom to take care that when he drives the car, no one gets injured directly or indirectly or his driving should not bother or disturb anyone else or can cause any action that can result in the other activities causing the damages to others.

(2) breach= This indicates that Tom breached the duty of care as he did not care about the comfort and security of the others while driving the car. He drove the car at a very fast speed casing very high sound that can cause disturbance to many people.

(3) cause in fact= If we look at the facts of the case, it is clear that the driving of car by Tom at a very high speed and the resulting sound was the main reason that initiated the series of events

(4) harm= Due to the negligence of Tom, the accident resulted causing the damage to Jerry

Defense= Tom can come up with the defense that he had no intention of causing any harm to anyone and he was not aware of the fact that there was a house that can be disturbed by the car sound. In fact, it was the duty of Jerry too to drive carefully and look for the various materials and obstructions present on the road.