Negligence/Negligent
In civil
litigation, negligence refers to the failure on the part of a person or entity to exercise reasonable care to protect another person, group of persons or property from harm due to foreseeable causes and in situations where a hazardous condition is known to exist.
In an asbestos case, this means that the defendant knew of the physical hazards involved in working with the substance, yet failed to issue adequate warnings to or provide suitable protection for those workers expected to handle the material in the course of their assigned tasks.
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In order to prove negligence, the plaintiff must demonstrate that there was a legal standard required and that the defendant owed a duty of protection to the defendant. If the defendant did
not know that the substance was toxic and had reasonable assurance of its safety, s/he may not be found negligent.
A second element of such a case is that a connection must be demonstrated between the act of negligence and the injury in question. This is known as causation: in order for the suit to succeed, the facts much show that some part of the negligence was responsible for the plaintiff's loss or injury.
In U.S. courts, causation falls into one of two categories: either cause-in-fact, or proximate (legal) cause. Cause-in-fast is determined by what is known as the "but-for" test; but for "A," "B" would not have occurred. But for the presence of asbestos, the plaintiff would not have contracted the illness.
Proximate cause is the action that sets off a chain or sequence of events which ultimately cause the injury or loss. In an asbestos case, the proximate cause would be the decision on the part of company management to use the substance in manufacture or require employees to handle the substance without proper protection.