Tom McCutcheon
Last week we talked about how when a person behaves in a way that either breaks a rule or creates a danger which a reasonable person would see and avoid, they become responsible for all the harms and losses they create.
This week we will talk about some of the reasons why if someone gets hurt and blames you, the legal reason why you may not be responsible. For instance, if you own a store and there is a box in the aisle and someone trips over that box and is hurt, there may be a defense. One defense to that is that the person should have seen a box that was out in the open and obvious to anyone who was looking where they were going.
The idea here is that a person cannot contribute to their own injury. That’s the defense of “contributory negligence”. For instance, if you pull out in front of someone but you didn’t see them because they were going 80 mph, they are not going to be able to successfully sue you because they were breaking a rule of safety that contributed to their own harm. By the same token, if you don’t know how fast you were going right after an accident, don’t just guess.
Really complex rules exist for suing governmental employees. Courts were established by kings. When kings began to delegate the authority to decide disputes to judges, one rule was firmly established and that is the idea that people may sue one another but not the king. This is now known as “sovereign immunity”. The idea of giving these our governmental employees immunity is to allow them freedom to use their discretion in making decisions. They do not have the discretion to break a rule. A mailman or police officer does not have the discretion to just cruise through stop signs and red lights. If they do and cause harm, they can be sued but it is still more difficult.
Another defense is that people can wait too long to bring a lawsuit and thus violate the statute of limitations.
Next week we will talk about workers compensation and the law of on-the-job injuries.
Buckle up and drive safely.
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-349-2529
