Torts on the NC Bar
Torts is the highest-yield area for North Carolina-specific rules because the state still follows contributory negligence, a doctrine most states abandoned. Review negligence elements, then defenses, then strict liability.
Negligence
- Duty (foreseeable plaintiff under Palsgraf), breach (reasonable person, custom, res ipsa loquitur), actual cause (but-for), proximate cause (foreseeability, intervening causes), damages.
- Special duties: landowners (trespasser, licensee, invitee), professionals, children of tender years, negligence per se where a statute fixes the standard.
- North Carolina: contributory negligence is a complete bar, but last clear chance rescues a negligent plaintiff when the defendant had the final opportunity to avoid the harm.
Intentional torts and strict liability
- Battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass, conversion; consent, self-defense, necessity.
- Defamation: publication, defamatory meaning, falsity, fault; privileges.
- Strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities, wild animals, and defective products under the Products Liability Act (G.S. 99B).
- North Carolina wrongful death (G.S. 28A-18-2) is brought by the personal representative for the benefit of the estate's heirs and can include punitive damages on a showing of malice.
Worked example
P, texting while crossing, is 10% at fault in a collision with D, who ran a red light at 55 mph in a school zone. In North Carolina, P's contributory negligence bars recovery entirely unless the last clear chance doctrine applies; if D saw P from 200 feet, that doctrine may restore the claim despite P's small share of fault.
Traps
Importing comparative fault from other states; treating assumption of risk as a comparative defense rather than a separate complete one requiring knowledge and voluntariness; forgetting that a professional's custom is evidence of the standard of care, not conclusive proof of it.