What You'll Learn

  • The four-element chain 2. Duty and breach
  • Actual and proximate cause 4. The damages requirement
  • A negligence exam sequence

Educational information only; not legal advice. This article is a general study aid and should be checked against current authority and course materials.

1. Build the Prima Facie Case in Order

Duty Identify the legal standard the defendant owed the plaintiff. Duty is ordinarily a question of law for the court. Breach Ask whether the defendant fell below the applicable standard of care by creating or failing to reduce an unreasonable risk.

Causation Prove both factual cause and scope of liability. The breach must actually cause the harm, and the harm must fall within the relevant risk. Damages Show physical injury, property damage, or another legally compensable loss. Negligence without damage is not actionable.

Do not collapse the elements into a single conclusion that the defendant was "negligent." State each element, apply the facts to it, and explain what remains disputed.

2. Duty and Breach Are Different Questions

Duty identifies the standard that applies; breach asks whether the defendant met it. The ordinary standard is reasonable care under the circumstances, but the outlines recognize adjustments for children, physical disabilities, professionals, emergency conditions, land possessors, and statutory duties.

Element Core inquiry Common proof

Duty What obligation did the law impose toward this plaintiff? Risk creation, relationship, undertaking, statute, premises status

Breach What precaution would reasonable care have required? Foreseeability, burden of precautions, custom, expert proof, statutory violation

Actual cause Would the harm have occurred without the breach? But-for proof, multiple-cause doctrines, circumstantial evidence

Proximate cause Is the harm within the scope of the risk? Foreseeable plaintiff and harm, intervening acts, policy limits

Damages What legally recognized loss resulted? Medical proof, property loss, wage loss, pain and suffering

Key Takeaway

A weak answer often starts with causation before identifying the duty or the alleged breach. A stronger answer names the precise precaution the defendant allegedly should have taken, then tests whether that omission caused the plaintiff's injury.

Actual cause versus proximate cause

Actual cause is the factual link. Proximate cause is the legal limit on responsibility. A defendant may be a but-for cause yet escape liability when the harm is too remote or outside the risk that made the conduct unreasonable.

Damages are an element

Proof that the defendant acted carelessly is not enough. The plaintiff must connect the breach to actual injury or loss. Nominal damages generally do not complete a negligence claim.

3. Use a Repeatable Negligence Sequence

1 Identify the defendant's conduct and the risk it created. 2 State the duty and the applicable standard of care. 3 Name the precaution that reasonable care allegedly required. 4 Analyze factual cause using but-for or an appropriate multiple-cause doctrine. 5 Analyze scope of liability, including intervening or superseding events. 6 Identify the plaintiff's damages, then address comparative fault and other defenses.

Key Takeaway

A driver sees a passenger grab the steering wheel once but continues at highway speed without warning or slowing. The passenger grabs it again, causing a crash. The driver owed reasonable care to passengers and road users. The earlier grab may make a second grab foreseeable, supporting breach; the answer must still prove causation and actual injury.

Common Mistake

Do not treat foreseeability as only a proximate-cause concept. Foreseeability can help define duty, show breach, and limit scope of liability. Explain which role it is playing.

Primary Authorities

  • • Brown v. Kendall (unintentional harm requires fault).

  • • Blyth v. Birmingham Waterworks Co. (reasonable precautions under the circumstances).

  • • Pipher v. Parsell (foreseeable danger and breach).

  • • Restatement (Third) of Torts: duty, breach, factual cause, and scope of liability.

Exam-ready conclusion

Negligence is a four-link chain. Identify the duty, specify the unreasonable act or omission, prove both forms of causation, and establish actual damages before turning to defenses.