Contributory Negligence - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition contributory-negligence

Definition :

Contributory negligence, the question of contributory negligence arises when there has been some act or omission on the claimant's part, which has materially contributed to the damage caused, and is of such a nature that it may properly be described as 'negligence', Pramod Kumar Rasikbhai Lhaveri v. Karmasey Kunvarji Tok, (2002) 6 SCC 455: AIR 2002 SC 2864 (2866). [Motor Vehicles Act, 1988]

Negligence on the part of a plaintiff disentitling him to recover. 'Sometimes, however, he [the defendant] is driven to admit that he was guilty of some negligence, which may have been one of the causes conducting to the plaintiff's injury. But at the same time he asserts that the plaintiff was himself negligent, and that it was this negligence on the part of the plaintiff, and not his own, that was the proximate or decisive cause of the injury for which the plaintiff now seeks to recover damages from him. This is called the defence of contributory negligence.'-Odgers on the Common Law, 2nd Edn., p. 497. See NEGLIGENCE.