The tort of negligence is what affects us the most in everyday life. It is based on the idea that a person owes a duty of care to another individual. The breach of this duty may give rise to liability. At the beginning the courts approached this tort on a case by case basis. The starting point was whether a duty should be imposed looking at the circumstances of the case in question. Later on the need of certainty in dealing with this type of wrong prevailed and the courts established authorities to be followed and incrementally applied to new situations. Read our Tort Law Notes on Duty of Care.
DEFINITION
A legal duty to take care is where care should be taken to ensure a person not be exposed to “liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class” (Cardozo C. J. in Ultramares Corporation v Touche [1931] 174 N.E. 441).
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