Dennis, an avid baseball fan is practicing his pitching in front of Mr. Wilson’s house. Dennis is pitching his baseball at a tree in front of Mr. Wilson’s house. The tree stands directly in front of Mr. Wilson's large living room window. One pitch gets away from Dennis, sails past the tree and right through the living room windows. Mr. Wilson sues Dennis for negligence for breaking his window. If Dennis argues that he did not mean to break the window, he will: Win, because the law understands that accidents happen Win, because he did not maliciously break the window Lose, because Dennis intentionally threw the ball Lose, because Dennis was at fault for throwing the ball at a tree right in front of the window

Tony is a truck driver for PetroCorp, a large oil and gas company. Tony’s last assignment was to transport five thousand ten-gallon tanks of propane gas from New York to Boston. After the truck was loaded, Tony used hemp rope to tie the load down and secure it to the truck. While on Route 95, the rope securing the tanks snaps and several of the propane filled tanks fall from the truck and explode. In a suit for negligence against Tony, his best defense is that: He made sure to tie the rope securely Rope was the only thing he had available to secure the tanks A reasonable person in Tony’s position would have used rope to secure the tanks He didn’t know that the tanks could explode if they fell off the truck

Woody owns a saw mill that produces lumber. Cut trees are floated into the mill by a network of man-made canals (think of them as conveyer belts that use water instead of belts) and then loaded onto conveyer belts which take them away to be processed. Occasionally, one of the canals gets log-jammed and, when that happens, the log-jam has to be cleared manually. Although Woody could halt the flow of trees in the canals while a log-jam is being cleared, he usually doesn’t because the trees are moving too slowly to create any safety risk to the worker who is clearing the log-jam. One day, Sylvester is clearing a log-jam when his hand is crushed by an oncoming tree. Had Woody stopped the flow of trees in the canal while Sylvester was working, the injury could have been avoided. In a suit for negligence against Woody, Woody’s best defense is that: He never stops the flow of trees while a log-jam is being cleared The saw mill industry’s custom is not to stop the flow of trees while a log-jam is being cleared Sylvester should have been more careful Stopping the flow of trees for every log-jam is not cost effective

Donald owns a high-rise tower in the middle of New Jersey. The New Jersey state legislature has recently passed a law requiring the railings in all high-rise stairwells to be a minimum of three feet high. Donald immediately has three foot railings installed in his high-rise. Soon afterwards, Ivana is walking down a staircase in the high-rise when she trips, topples over the railing, falls fifteen feet and breaks her leg. In a suit against Donald for negligence, Ivana will: Win, if the railings were too short Win, if a reasonable person would have gone beyond the requirements of the statute and installed taller railings Lose, because Donald complied with the statute Lose, because Ivana could have taken the elevator

In order to determine if a child has committed negligence, we look to see what a reasonable man in the child’s position would have done. True False

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