Essay on Tort Law and Case

Essay on Tort Law and Case

Tort law is a field of private legal provisions that include the legal rules which attribute legal responsibility and compensation obligations or liability for damages and injuries that result from tortious acts. A tort is a wrongful and unlawful act that can injure or affect life, as well as the body and health or property of another individual (The Babcock Law Firm, 2020). Public spaces like coffee stores and grocery stores must protect those who visit them to purchase products from them. These stores owe those injured due to slip and fall accidents a legal duty and compensation since it the obligation of these establishments to protect those patronizing their businesses. In this assignment, the essay discusses tort law related to slip and fall injuries in a grocery store, in this case, Walmart store.

Slip and Fall Events in Grocery Stores

Slip and fall incidents can happen to people visiting grocery stores to make purchases. As such, the proprietors of Walmart stores must keep the property in reasonably safe conditions. The precarious state of the establishment can contribute to accidents that may lead to injury claims against such businesses.  When one slips and falls in these stores, they can have a personal injury claim against the establishment because any entity which opens its premises to the public should take specific measures to ensure that customers are not harmed. Injured customers due to slip and fall accidents can institute a valid case against Walmart Inc. Slipping and falling results from the unsafe way of the layout of the store, slippery floor without any warning, and inability to provide requisite accommodations (Findlaw, 2019).

Stores that fail to adhere to the duty of care and maintain safe premises violate tort law. The implication is that Walmart Inc. is liable for injuries if it is demonstrated that the slip and fall incident happened due to unsafe conditions on the property. The store is responsible for negligence because it failed to adhere to expected standards like protecting those accessing the premises. Negligence suits do not entail overt actions but occur when entities or individuals act carelessly or fail to offer a duty owed to another entity (The Babcock Law Firm, 2020). In many instances, slip and fall incidents occur when a property fails to act reasonably and, therefore, resulting in the harm of a customer or a visitor.

Elements of Negligent Torts

Negligent tortious acts like slip and fall events demonstrate an entity failed to act as expected, leading to injury of another person due to the harm suffered. Imperatively, to ascertain negligence, an event or case must demonstrate the following four elements, the duty owed, breach of the function, proximate cause or causation, and damages. The result of any negligence incident relies on whether a defendant owed an obligation to the injured person (The Babcock Law Firm, 2020). Duty emerges when law and expected standards recognize the relationship between a defendant and a plaintiff where the defendant should act in a certain way. The overriding mission, in this case, is the duty of safety and protection.

Secondly, a breach of duty means that a party failed to behave in a manner that a reasonable person would in such circumstances. Reasonability, in this case, means that any average person would act in similar situations. The implication is that a defendant would violate the duty owed when they fail to prevent or protect people as required by law when accessing their premises (Findlaw, 2019). Breach of duty only suffices when it is established that a party had an obligation to do so in such situations. Thirdly, causation means that a complainant should demonstrate that the negligent act by a defendant caused injury or harm. The plaintiff can only be compensated if the negligence caused damage or harm. Fourthly, a plaintiff needs to show beyond doubt that a legally known harm in the form of an injury sustained due to the negligent event to get compensation for damages suffered. Therefore, negligent tortious acts or events must demonstrate these four critical legal elements to get the ultimate benefit.

Application of the Elements

In the case of slip and fall accident, the plaintiff should prove that Walmart Inc. has a duty of care and should protect its customers against such incidents. In most cases, a premise that opens its doors to the public, a grocery store has a duty owed to protect the safety of its customers and visitors. When a customer slips and falls, it means that the store ignored the standard way it is expected to conduct its business; therefore, breaching the duty of care (The Babcock Law Firm, 2020). Thirdly, when one sustains injuries due to slip and fall accidents, it means that the harm was caused due to the breach of duty and therefore making the store liable to compensate the affected person. The store should pay for the damages caused by compensating the injured individual.

Legal Defenses

Walmart’s liability to negligence incidents can be mitigated through the use of certain defenses. These include contributory negligence, comparative negligence, and risk assumption. For instance, if the conduct of a plaintiff, in this case, customer, falls below expected standards to protect themselves, then it is contributory negligence (Findlaw, 2018). This implies that the plaintiff contributed by not following the laid down procedures. Comparative negligence is a shared responsibility in providing to harm suffered. In this case, comparative negligence means that both the grocery store and the plaintiff share damages resulting from a slip and fall incident. Assumption of risk defense occurs when a complainant knowing the risks entailed in an activity decides to take part in it. In this case, the only valid legal argument is comparative defense between the grocery store and the injured person.

References

Findlaw (2018). Defenses to Negligence Claims. Retrieved from

https://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/defenses-to-negligence-claims.html

Findlaw (2019 November 12). What are the Elements of Negligence? Retrieved from

https://injury.findlaw.com/accident-injury-law/proving-fault-what-is-negligence.html

The Babcock Law Firm (2020). The 3 Different Types of Tort Law. Retrieved from

https://www.injurylawcolorado.com/legal-library/tort-law-types.html