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Yile Xu - Torts Essay 1
Yile Xu - Torts Essay 1
Q1: May the jury properly award Nephew damages for his personal injury from Tenant?
Yes.
Under Negligence law, homeowners must provide a reasonably safe environment for guests
who are invited onto their property. Homeowners have a duty to prevent conditions that may
cause injuries, unless the danger is so visible and obvious that a guest should be able to avoid it.
This responsibility is based on traditional standards for negligent behavior, which can hold
homeowners responsible for injuries that result from unintentional accidents. Homeowners
have greater liability when the injuries involve children, since children are less able to recognize
danger. In parts of the apartment building where the tenant controls, liability hinges on
possession. If injuries only occurred because of the actions a person took, proximate causation
is present. The tenant would be liable for his own action.
Here, Landlord rents out the apartment building to Tenant, and made reasonable effort to fix
the apartment. During the repair period, Tenant decides to heat a large pot of water and mixed
it with cold water to bathe. And Nephew is Tenant’s guest.
Therefore, the apartment is under Tenant possession and control when incident happened.
Tenant’s action caused the danger. Tenant is liable for his own action. Tenant has the liability to
provide a reasonably safe environment for his guest – Nephew.
Here, an eight-year child is no able to foresee the danger and avoid the injury when he was
chasing a ball out of a bedroom that the opened into the hall. The danger is not visible or
obvious. Nephew did not intentionally fail to look or call out does.
Therefore, Tenant is liable for Nephew’s personal injury because he was in possession and
control of the apartment and it is Tenant’s action that caused the unsafe environment for his
guest.
Q2: May the jury properly award Nephew damages for his personal injury from Landlord?
No.
The issue here is whether Landlord is liable for Tenant’s negligent action.
Under negligence law, during a tenancy, landlord responsibilities include keeping the premises
in a reasonable state of repair and in compliance with building, health and safety laws. A
landlord is held responsible for an injury on the rented premises if it can be shown that the
landlord was somehow negligent in maintaining the property, and that the negligence in doing
so was the proximate cause of the injury.
Here, Landlord ordered the parts needed to fix the furnace right after when he was notified.
And Landlord made reasonable effort to repair the apartment. And it is not foreseeable that
Tennant would get his Nephew burnt by the boiling water.
Therefore, Landlord is not liable for Tenant’s negligence because the furnace parts arriving is
not the proximate cause of Nephew’s injury and Landlord cannot foresee the incident.