Happy family

Find a legal form in minutes

Browse US Legal Forms’ largest database of 85k state and industry-specific legal forms.

Negligence

Negligence is a legal concept in the common law legal systems mostly applied in tort cases to achieve damages.  It can be generally defined as conduct that is culpable because it falls short of what a reasonable person would do to protect another individual from foreseeable risks of harm.

The principles of the law of negligence are ordinarily entered into the determination of the question of the reasonable use of property.  Adjoining landowners, who own lands that share common boundaries, have mutual rights, duties, and liabilities.  The reciprocal rights and obligations of adjoining landowners existed at common law but have been modified by various state laws and court decisions.

A private owner is liable for damages inflicted by the owner’s negligence in connection with his or her property, even when the injury is inflicted outside and beyond the limits of his or her property.[ Stafford v. Field, 70 Idaho 331, 218 P.2d 338 (1950).].  The proper test of liability of a possessor of land is whether in the management of his or her property he or she has acted as a reasonable person in view of the probability of injury to others [Sprecher v. Adamson Companies, 30 Cal. 3d 358, 178 Cal. Rptr. 783, 636 P.2d 1121 (1981)].  In Sprecher v. Adamson Companies, the court rejects the common-law distinction between natural and artificial conditions and the rule of non-liability for natural conditions.  Liability may be imposed on an adjoining landowner or lessee if that individual creates a dangerous condition[ Warren v. Wilmorite Inc., 211 A.D.2d 904, 621 N.Y.S.2d 184 (3d Dep’t 1995).

However, it is a general principle that in the absence of negligence there is no liability if there was a legitimate and reasonable use of property [ United Fuel Gas Co. v. Sawyers, 259 S.W.2d 466, 38 A.L.R.2d 1261 (Ky. 1953).].


Inside Negligence