Doctrines
Res Ipsa Loquitur
Tort and Equity Doctrine
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Origin The Latin phrase dates to Cicero's Pro Milone, 52 BC; its use as an English and American common law negligence doctrine developed in the nineteenth century.
Res ipsa loquitur, Latin for the thing speaks for itself, is a doctrine of tort law that allows a court or jury to infer a defendant's negligence from the very circumstances of an accident or injury, without direct evidence of specifically how the defendant behaved, when the injury is of a kind that ordinarily does not occur absent negligence and the instrumentality that caused it was within the defendant's control. The phrase itself dates to the Roman orator Cicero's defense speech Pro Milone in 52 BC, though its use as a doctrine of English and American negligence law developed many centuries later.
Facts
Origin PeriodThe Latin phrase dates to Cicero's Pro Milone, 52 BC; its use as an English and American common law negligence doctrine developed in the nineteenth century. 1 Core PrincipleWhere an injury is of a kind that does not ordinarily occur without negligence, and the thing that caused it was under the defendant's control, a plaintiff can establish a prima facie case of negligence from the circumstances alone, without proving the defendant's specific negligent act. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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