Res Ipsa Loquitur - Law Dictionary Search Results

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res ipsa loquitur

res ipsa loquitur Latin, the thing speaks for itself] : a doctrine or rule of evidence in tort law that permits an inference or presumption that a defendant was negligent in an accident injuring the plaintiff on the basis of circumstantial evidence if the accident was of a kind that does not ordinarily occur in the absence of negligence [a plaintiff who establishes the elements of res ipsa loquitur can withstand a motion for summary judgment and reach the jury without direct proof of negligence "Cox v. May Dept. Store Co., 903 P.2d 1119 (1995)"] NOTE: For res ipsa loquitur to apply, the accident in question must not be due to any voluntary action or contribution by the plaintiff. The doctrine has traditionally required that a defendant have exclusive control over the instrumentality of an injury, but now it is commonly applied when multiple defendants have joint or sometimes successive control (as by the manufacturer and retailer of a defective product). In addition to the control ...

Res ipsa loquitur

Res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself), a phrase used in actions for injury by negligence where no proof of negligence is required beyond the accident itself, which is such as necessarily to involve negligence, e.g., a collision between two trains upon a railway: see Carpue v. London, Brighton, and South Coast Ry. Co., (1844) 5 Ex. 787.Res ipsa loquitur (thing speaks for itself) is a principle which, in reality, belongs to the law of torts, Syed Akbar v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1979 SC 1848 (1851).The thing speaks for itself.This maxim is applicable in actions for injury by negligence where no proof of negligence is required beyond the accident itself, which is such as necessarily to involve negligence-- e.g., where a ship in motion collides with a ship at anchor. It ought not to be applied unless the facts proved are more consistent with negligence in the defendant than with a mere accident; nor ought it to be applied to evidence of an unexplained accident, if the evidence is...

res ipsa

res ipsa : res ipsa loquitur ...

Caveat actor

Caveat actor. The Criminal Law of England supposes that a man intends the natural and probable consequences of his act. But in civil matters there is no rule of common law that a man 'acts at his peril,' except the case of one who harbours or collects a dangerous thing, or anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, Rylands v. Fletcher, (1866) LR 1 Ex. 265; (1868) LR 3 HL 330; with that exception in which nothing short of an act of God, or the victim's default, will excuse him, if a person suffers injury he must found his action either on contract or tort, e.g., trespass or negligence on the part of the defendant. This is the theory of the law, though in practice a very small amount of malice or negligence will suffice. See Malice and Res Ipsa Loquitur.Let the doer, or actor, beware, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 215....

Negligence

Negligence, acting carelessly, a question of law or fact or of mixed fact and law, depending entirely upon the nature of a duty, which the person charged with negligence has failed to comply with or perform in the particular circumstance of each case. A very convenient classification has been formulated corresponding to the degree of negligence entailing liability measured by the degree of care undertaken or required in each case, i.e., (1) ordinary, which is the want of ordinary diligence; (2) slight, the want of great diligence; and (3) gross, the want of slight diligence. A smaller degree of negligence will render a person liable for injury to infants than in the case of adults, see Cooke v. Midland Great Western Railway, 1909 AC 229; and Glasgow Corporation v. Taylor, (1922) 1 AC 44. There is also a peculiar duty to take precaution in the case of dangerous Articles, see Dominion Natural Gas Co. v. Collins, 1909 AC 640. This case should be distinguished from the principle in Fletche...

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