...Assignment 3 (Negligence) Date: February 19, 213 To: Judge Stephan Haas Re: Negligence Judgement Facts: The plaintiff, Alan was in the terminal at O’Hare airport in Chicago, and while running to catch his the plane he slipped on a banana peel, which he had not seen. When he slipped on the peel, it caused him to slide across the floor and hit his head on a metal container and suffers a severe head injury. The plaintiff, then files a negligence suit against the airport. O’Hare maintains that after an investigation into the incident revealed that the banana peel was brownish when the plaintiff slipped on it. The defendant maintains that the peel could have just been dropped by another passenger, and has no idea how it got there. Issue: Does the plaintiff, Alan have a legal basis against O’Hare airport for negligence, and does O’Hare have a legal basis for a summary judgement against the plaintiff due to lack of evidence on the part of the plaintiff? Applicable Law: Under Illinois rules of negligence, 1-14 Illinois Tort Law § 14.01 the term negligence is applied both to conduct and to a cause of action. Some courts, following the Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, define negligence as "the failure to do something which a reasonably careful person would do or doing something which a reasonably careful person would not do." This standard applies to the conduct of the defendant. It may also apply to the plaintiff when contributory negligence is an issue. Although Illinois...
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...Negligence Paper HCS478 September 22, 2014 Amputation Mishap The article of the "Amputation Mishap," located in (Pearson Health Science, 2014) Neighborhood News, season 3 episode 7 is about a 62-year-old gentleman who went into the hospital to have his right leg amputated, but instead the wrong leg was amputated. He received a below the knee amputation of his left leg. The reason that he was having his right leg amputated was because he is diabetic and has poor circulation in his right leg. The surgery did not correct his problem but instead created bigger problems, because he still has the leg with the poor circulation and will most likely still need his right leg amputated. This was a huge mistake that the hospital staff has made. The incident of the wrong leg being amputated is a result gross negligence. This paper will be discussing the difference between negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice. It will also cover my opinion about the situation, deciding whether it was a mishap or negligence, the importance of documentation, the ethical principles that serve as a guide in the nursing practice in this situation, and how documentation should be done to satisfy ethical and legal requirements. For negligence or malpractice to be present there is a couple of things that needs to be proven such as a duty owed to the patient, breach of duty to the patient, foreseeability, causation, injury and damage. In order for there to be negligence, it has to be an injury...
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...Negligence Paper Jennifer Zuber HCS/478 April 11, 2016 Susan Lawson Negligence Paper In 1711, Alexander Pope wrote in a poem, "To err is human." Errors happen in every walk of life and every career path, but there are some areas where and error could be the difference between life and death or profound injury. The healthcare field is one of those areas. Over time, health care has evolved. There are now so many practices and protocols in place so that errors may be avoided. It is understood that there are some errors that may occur due to being human, and then there are other mistakes that should never happen, such as surgically amputating the wrong limb. There are so many safeguards in place to prevent such errors from happening. Negligence is a general term that denotes conduct lacking in due care (Guido, 2014). Malpractice sometimes referred to as professional negligence, is a more specific term that addresses a professional standard of care as well as the professional status of the caregiver. To be liable for malpractice, the person committing the civil wrong must be a professional, such as a physician, nurse, accountant, or lawyer (Guido, 2014). Gross negligence is an act or omission “which when viewed objectively from the standpoint of the actor at the time of its occurrence involves an extreme degree of risk, considering the probability and magnitude of the potential harm to others; and of which the actor has actual, subjective awareness of the risk...
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...Negligence Paper University of Phoenix Health Law & Ethics Negligence Paper Being a medical professional has many challenges when dealing with direct patient care. Sometimes in the best of circumstances, incidents occur with patients that cause undue harm. This paper will differentiate between negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice. It will also discuss the article “Amputation Mishap; Negligence” from the Neighborhood newspaper. It will discuss the importance of documentation and the ethical principles that would guide my practice as a nurse. Negligence can be defined as the failure to use reasonable care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. (West, 1998). Negligence occurs when a medical health professional fails to perform his or her duties with the patient in question. If a nurse fails to give medications as ordered, and as a result the patient's condition worsens or he dies, the nurse may be found negligent. If a nurse has inadequate nursing skills or fails to pay attention to tasks, it may result in a suit of negligence against a nurse who fails to provide approved standards of care. A good nurse knows their duties and has good communication between the patient and the physician. The nurse knows board regulations and practices within legal guidelines. Gross negligence can be defined as a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or...
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...It is human nature to make mistakes; however, mistakes that cause harm to someone else could be considered negligence. In the case with Mr. Benson in the Neighborhood Newspaper article, a mistake was made that was irreversible. He went into the hospital to have his leg amputated, and the doctor amputated the wrong leg. The question is was the doctor negligent in his practice? Is the amputation of the wrong leg considered to be malpractice on the doctor’s part? This paper will differentiate between negligence, gross negligence, and malpractice. After differentiating between these terms, it will be determined if the doctor operating on Mr. Benson was considered to be negligent, gross negligent or was this mistake malpractice. To determine if the doctor who operated on Mr. Benson was negligent, the term negligent has to be defined. According to the Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting (2007), negligence is defined as the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation, any conduct that falls below the legal standard established to protect others against unreasonable risk of harm, except for conduct that is intentionally, wantonly, or willfully disregardful of others’ rights. In Mr. Benson’s case, the doctor would be considered to be negligent. The surgeon did not act in the same way another surgeon, in the same practice would have acted. For some reason, not all the measures were taken to ensure...
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...set in place to protect the patient to a certain degree of wrongdoing on the physicians and medical facilities part, they can be distinguished by which one affects health care professionals directly compared to indirectly. In this paper, I will discuss the Tort Law, the law that most directly influences Health Care Professionals. Tort Law Defined Tort Law can be defined as the civil wrongdoing against a person. Tort warrants claimants to seek restitution for their alleged disservice for bodily harm, effects, or character. In order to file a tort claim, the claim has to be factual or true by the party that suffered the disservice. Medical personnel and facilities can receive jail time and/or malpractice claims if found guilty of such negligence as described in the tort claim. According the Congressional Budget Office (2006), “The system has twin objectives: deterring negligent behavior on the part of providers and compensating claimants for losses (including medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering) they incur as the result of an injury that occurs because of negligence” (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/71xx/doc7174/04-28-MedicalMalpractice.pdf ). Torts can be divided into categories, such as negligence and intentional torts. Negligence is the most common tort claim filed towards health care professionals. Tort laws are set in place to recognize what can be defined as a legal injury and what criteria needs to be met in order to meet the requirements to claim that a...
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...HSA515 February/1/2011 Healthcare Policy Law and ethics Abstract The Snow Storm Lawsuit is a case of Negligence, Duty to act, and wrongful death. This paper will explain the legal, ethical and professional considerations. The Chief Executive Officer of a small non-profit community hospital were on vacation in the Bahamas, the are was hit by a large snow storm, in this case, many of the hospitals health care providers were unable to make it to work, as a result. This paper will explain how the employees reacted, and how the patients ethically, legally and professional suffered from the unexpected incident. While the Chief Executive officer of a small non-profit community hospital was vacationing in the Bahamas, the area was hit by a large snow storm. Many of the hospitals health care providers were unable to make it in to work, 3-11 and 11-7 shifts. As a result the patients units were understaffed and days shift personnel were required to remain on duty until relieved. During this snow storm, several patients sustained minor injuries from falls out of their bed, and one patient died after being given the wrong medication, the nurse on duty also left the hospital to go to Wendy’s to buy dinner, after one year, the families of these patients sued the hospital on the behalf of their deceased relatives. The three legal considerations are, during the snow storm, many of the hospital health care providers were unable to make...
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...Negligence Paper Maria Gutierrez HCS/478 August 5, 2015 Carol Mack Negligence Paper The health provider or a nurse has the responsibility to provide the best care possible for the patients. In this paper, I will discuss about neglect and the different between negligence, gross negligence and malpractice. I will also cover my opinion about the situation, agreement or disagreement deciding whether it was a mishap or negligence, the importance of documentation, the ethical principles that serve as a guide for nursing. Negligence is not being diligent. It is one of the legal issues that all healthcare provider are prone to participate unintentionally. Guido (2010 stated, “Negligence denotes conduct lacking in due care. Negligence include doing something that the reasonable and prudent person would not do” (p. 92). Negligence can occur anytime and in any areas of the healthcare environment. However, negligence most likely happens with old people in health care setting, for example, nursing home, hospitals and boarding care facilities. Some of the common negligence examples include failure to provide adequate nutrition, medication error, physical injury, and failure to turn patient that lead to a poor skin integrity. Gross negligence is more serious than negligence. The difference between the two of them is the degree of carelessness or inattention. Negligence is when a person fails with the standard of care not intentionally and gross negligence is a complete reckless conduct...
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...Cindy Maldonado March 4, 2015 Grand Canyon University: EDA 555 Preempting Liability Preempting Liability Different liability issues are addressed in the campus of Del Castillo Elementary. The following would be some of the issues that will be covered in this paper: safety in school, intentional and unintentional torts, liability and negligence, supervisor duties, FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and student record confidentiality. School safety is and should always be a key component of their campus. As mentioned by Gay (2014), “Representatives from each school safety stakeholder group must gather to discuss, assess, plan and evaluate the safety of the school community.” (pg. 22). Who are these stakeholders? It includes everyone from parents, teachers, counselors, custodians, paraprofessionals, administrators, and even the cafeteria staff. Throughout the year Del Castillo Elementary practices various emergency procedures to assert them safety of our students. With practicing these emergency procedures we get to see firsthand if the students and staff knows what to do in case a real life emergency occurs. We currently practice fire drills, soft lockdown, hard lockdown, and shelter in place. Teachers are also aware that their classroom doors must be locked once instructional time starts and it must remained locked until the last student exits the classroom. During a fire drill each teacher is assigned to a certain area they must walk their students...
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...from wrongful medication occurred. There are multiple issues in question in this scenario. The objective of this paper is to identify the legal, ethical and professional considerations of the hospital. It will also further explain and summarize the effects on the business and reputation of the hospital in the future. Hospital personnel face several dilemmas, legal and/or ethical on a daily basis. A well-developed disaster plan would have been instrumental in dealing with internal and external issues in such a large snow storm. Regardless of the weather, the hospital is still required to provide adequate care to its patients. Failure to do so raises several legal questions. There are at least three legal matters to be considered. First there are the legal considerations of Liability and Staffing. Was the hospital adequately staffed to provide a sufficient standard of care? In corporate negligence, it is the hospital that owes a legal duty directly to the patient. (Showalter, 2007, p. 136) The premise of this law states that hospital is responsible for providing a staffed facility, the equipment and safe environment needed to provide care for its patients. If violation to this law is the cause of injury, liability can be considered in regard to standard of care. (Showalter, 2007, p. 138) The second legal question is whether the hospital is Negligent. Negligence is defined as the failure to do what a reasonably, careful and prudent person would do under the same...
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...ABSTRACT This research paper tries to expound the conundrums of Causation and Remoteness and the role played by them in tort law. They are two closely linked topics and are, more often than not, contingent upon each other. Through this paper, I have tried to discern the line of distinction between the two while explaining how and why they have become topics for contention among legal scholars. The focus of this paper has been on understanding the concepts and the importance they hold in the process of identifying a tortfeasor. The various tests which have been used in the past for identifying the cause and the ‘closeness’ of the cause have also been taken up. They have been discussed in detail using various case laws. The limitations of these tests have been explored as well. Under what condition does a cause, which may have been proximate, gets ignored has also been deliberated and discussed. Finally the paper is summed up with a general solution which can help law courts to decide on the matters in question without getting involved in the technicalities which currently persist. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION In order to understand the role of causation and remoteness in tortious liability it is imperative that we have a clear idea of what the term causation and remoteness imply in tort law. Very simply put - In a tort case, it is essential to discover whether there was some act or omission by the defendant which caused damage to the plaintiff...
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...placed on human life. Moreover, this ‘value’ is represented by two sides of the coin in addressing the intangible ‘blessing’ of conception and existence, against the real fiscal burdens involved in adequately raising a child. In recent years several major cases have come before English and Australian courts to address issues in this field; however decisions have been far from unanimous, leaving the law in a state of ambiguity. This paper attempts to provide a line of clarity in respect to the developments of legal principles and public policy on these issues, by closely examining relevant case progression and wider academic debate. (III) Development of the ‘Birth Torts’ Unfortunately, the labels of ‘Wrongful Birth’ and ‘Wrongful Life’ are contentious even in their very existence; however it is critical to establish that ‘what is ‘wrongful’ is the negligence, not the birth’. Both issues refer to cases of medical negligence and as such it is necessary to debunk the clear legal principles from the fraught moral aspects of this issue. Negligence is a fairly simple equation in purity; requiring firstly an assessment of whether a duty of care is reasonably expected of a person in a...
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...Before You Sue The Accountants Daniel J. Hurson Even if it looks like a strong case, be careful—there are some surprising defenses. IN THE WAKE OF the corporate accounting scandals that have dominated the business news for the last few years, as well as recurring announcements of large settlements in class action suits against major accounting firms, the prospect of a malpractice case against an accounting firm would at first glance seem attractive. Juries are presumably more predisposed to view accountants with renewed skepticism, when hardly a news cycle passes without some reference to accounting fraud, investigations, and the occasional large-scale debacles like the demise of Arthur Andersen, not to mention the high-profile criminal prosecutions that have recently gone to trial. Daniel J. Hurson, formerly Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel at the SEC, practices securities enforcement and accounting malpractice law in Washington, D.C. His website is www.hursonlaw.com. 25 26 The Practical Lawyer April 2006 Accountant malpractice litigation is a minefield of arcane judicial doctrines layered over pleading and discovery traps that can bury the best plaintiffs’ counsel. Indeed, among the players in these sagas, the accountants sometimes offer the best litigation target. The companies themselves have often tanked; the errant executives dismissed, awash in legal problems, and without insurance coverage; but the accountants (Andersen notwithstanding)...
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...Introduction The tort of negligence has long attracted widespread interest. It fortifies community expectations and standards and hence ‘it is especially prone to influence by moral, social, economic and political values’. Of particular interest is the recognition of liability for negligently caused mental harm. Throughout its history courts have been cautious in awarding damages in fear of opening the ‘floodgates of litigation’. To assess whether further limitations should be placed on the scope of liability for mental harm in Western Australia or in fact Australia, we must look upon the history of ‘nervous shock’ law, the legitimacy of floodgate arguments and the effect of recent reforms and new legislative provisions in the various Civil Liability Acts. Development of the law The right to claim for negligently caused mental harm has been around for some 125 years dating back to the pre-federation Victorian case of Coultas v Victorian Railway Commissioners. It has consistently been far more tedious in establishing than claims surrounding physical harm due to a difficulty in distinguishing between real or imaginary/exaggerated claims. Seeing is believing and since psychiatric injury is not visible to the untrained eye, claims were long thought of as frivolous. In recent decades, however, medical identification of psychiatric injury has propelled legal recognition of it. As Gummow and Kirby JJ noted in Tame and New South Wales and Annetts v Australian Stations Pty Ltd,...
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...Product Liability Legal Issues LaTanya Powers LAW 531 September 17, 2012 Mike Kelley Introduction Have you been injured due to a defective product? Has the product that you just purchased failed to have the proper warning label? Better yet, has the design or the manufactured parts of the product somehow become defective? These questions are just some of the legal issues that will be presented within this paper. In addition, the legal principles that apply to each of the issues will be discussed. Product Liability is the type of law that holds manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others involved with the product reponsible “for any damage caused by that product (Products Liability Law). This paper will contain important factors about the Product Liability video. For example, Potential tort risks that were addressed within the video will be identified. In addition, a tort violation from the video will be identified. This, in turn, will provide the 7-step process to be applied to the risk management process to mitigate the business risk associated with that violation. Lastly, the criterion in determining if it is an appropriate situation to involve legal counsel in regards to the breach of warranty occurrence will be evaluated. Potential Tort Risks First of all, there are several potential tort risks that are addressed within the Product Liability video. Tort law basically protects individuals...
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