Practice fact pattern · Torts
Late for her 9 a.m. final, Dana drove 45 mph through a marked school zone while texting1. She swerved to miss a jaywalking pedestrian2 and clipped a parked bicycle, which flew into a café window3. Flying glass cut a diner, Lee4, who missed a week of work5. Dana insists she never saw anyone near the café6.
- Breach. Speeding through a school zone may support negligence per se.
- Sudden emergency? Not if her own driving helped create it.
- Causation. Actual cause first, then proximate cause.
- Duty. Was Lee a foreseeable plaintiff? Think Palsgraf.
- Damages. Lost wages and medical costs.
- Objective standard. What would a reasonable driver foresee?