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Gross negligence: Difference between revisions
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:''“Certainly the last time this issue came before the Court of Appeal they decided that the debate about its meaning was a “somewhat sterile and semantic one.”'' <small>([http://www.linklaters.com/Publications/Publication1403Newsletter/TMT_Newsletter_March_2011/Pages/08_UK_When_Does_Negligence_Become_Gross_Negligence.aspx Linklaters publication])</small> | :''“Certainly the last time this issue came before the Court of Appeal they decided that the debate about its meaning was a “somewhat sterile and semantic one.”'' <small>([http://www.linklaters.com/Publications/Publication1403Newsletter/TMT_Newsletter_March_2011/Pages/08_UK_When_Does_Negligence_Become_Gross_Negligence.aspx Linklaters publication])</small> | ||
====What ''is'' gross negligence?==== | ====What ''is'' gross negligence?==== | ||
What case law there is suggests that, since both terms do get used in English law contracts, there must be some distinction. From the declarers of the common law, this is quite a piece of tail wagging dog work. | What case law there is suggests that, since both terms do get used in English law contracts, there must be some distinction. From the declarers of the [[common law]], this is quite a piece of tail wagging dog work. | ||
The important factors in distinguishing between plain negligence and gross negligence appear to be: | The important factors in distinguishing between plain negligence and gross negligence appear to be: | ||
*The seriousness of the error | *The seriousness of the error | ||
*The seriousness of the risk | *The seriousness of the resulting risk. | ||
*Something more fundamental than a simply failure to exercise proper skill or care | *Something more fundamental than a simply failure to exercise proper skill or care: a “serious indifference” to an obvious risk. | ||
*Failing to comply with a [[duty of care]] by a significant margin. | |||
*Failing to comply with a duty of care by a significant margin. | |||
Note in particular the seriousness of the risk or loss which eventuates | Note in particular ''the seriousness of the risk or loss which eventuates''. | ||
Put it this way, if your negligence results in a £10,000,000 loss, it is going to be a curious court indeed which concludes this was a mere trifling matter, and the right outcome is for the innocent party to bear the loss, and the one who causes it, by negligence, being allowed to walk away. | |||
This outcome might be different in the [[US attorney|American]] courts (see below). | |||
===New York law=== | ===New York law=== | ||
Gross negligence is a thing across the ditch | Gross negligence ''is'' a thing across the ditch, and it is apparently sheeted directly the ''wantonness of the error'', rather than (as seems to be the case in English law) the ''outcome'' of the carelessness. It requires something more like ''recklessness'' than simple carelessness. | ||
{{sa}} | {{sa}} | ||
*[[Degrees of liability]] | *[[Degrees of liability]] | ||
{{ref}} | {{ref}} | ||