Negligence

All over the world, people may at one time or the other
suffer damage from the careless acts of other persons. A careless or negligent act may be done intentionally, unintentionally, or accidentally. The word “negligence” comes from the root word “neglect”.
Negligence is the breach of a duty to take a care, which results damage to another person. The tort of negligence is designed to redress damage which has been suffered as a result of the negligence of another person. However, it is not every negligence or careless act, which gives rise to a successful claim. Thus, every careless act does not amount to actionable negligence.
As a general rule, there is negligence whenever there is a duty of care and there is a breach of the duty. In other words, whenever the law prescribes a standard of conduct to which people should conform, failure to comply usually attaches liability in negligence. Ordinarily negligence is the failure to exercise the reasonable care expected of an ordinary prudent person in a given situation which results in damage to another person.
The purpose of the tort of negligence
The purpose of the tort of negligence is to identify breach of a duty of care and offer remedy to a person who has suffered harm. In other words, the purpose of the law of negligence is  to offer remedy to a person who has suffered harm, because of a breach of a duty of care.
Negligence is not an old tort. It emerged as separate tort in relatively recent time, however, it is the most prominent. This is so because most claims in tort are brought in negligence. It is the biggest tort. And even when a claim is brought in other torts, for instance, in nuisance, negligence is also pleaded as well. In the tort of negligence, fault, carelessness, or negligence is the basis of the claim and the basis of liability fault means acting unreasonably or carelessly. Previllage of contract is not relevant for a claim or liability in the tort of negligence. The criteria for determining the existence of a duty of care are the neighbour principle or foresight and proximity.
Negligence is definitely one of the most important and commonest tort in law. The tort of negligence was formulated in the nineteenth century and was greatly helped to grow and expand by the industrial revolution, inventions and the growth of the business sector. Today, more claims are brought for negligence than for any other tort.
The importance of fault and the rise of the tort of negligence is due mainly to changed social attitudes, legal reforms and social legislation aimed at improving the lives of the people. The advancement of education and science made it easier to apportion responsibility, determine. Cause and prove fault. These were further helped by the move from selfish individualism and the me culture, to greater social and civil responsibility. These couple with judicial activism, radicalism, ingenuity and a firm belief in justice led to the decision in Donoghue v Stevenson in 1932, which established the duty of care when it was owed, and when a person was liable. The neighbour principle, which was formulated in this case, determines when there is a duty of care, and the existence of a right to claim in negligence in a given situation or transaction.
In the law of tort negligence may mean:
1. A state or condition of mind in which a tort was committed; or
2. A tort that is: a wrongful conduct, for which a right of action for redress lies.
THE DEFINITION OF NEGLIGENCE
Negligence is the breach of a legal duty to take care, which result damage to another person LORD WRIGHT reasoning in this vein in lochgelly Iron & coal co v McMullan explained negligence thus.
“In strict legal analysis, negligence means more than heedless or careless conduct, whether in omission or commission. It properly connotes the complex concept of duty, breach, ad damage thereby suffered by the person to whom the duty was owing”.
In the same regard ANDERSON B in Blyth Birmingham Water Work Co. defined.
“Negligence…is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doin                                                                                                                     g something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do”.

 
Chidi Enyie