A rule of simple negligence means that if you cause an accident that injures another person...

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The question concerns the rule of simple negligence in tort law, specifically what must be shown when one person’s action causes an accident that injures another.
Option 1: 'you would owe them damages if they could prove harm and causation.' This option asserts that the plaintiff must prove both harm and causation. While harm (injury) and causation are indeed elements related to negligence, in many formulations the core gatekeeper is causation in fact (the negligent act caused the accident). Saying you owe damages merely because the plaintiff can prove harm and causation omits the separate requirement that there be a breach of duty and damages resulting from that breach. In other words, it conflates multiple elements and isn’t precisely capturing the standard chain of negligence.
Option 2: 'you would owe them damages if they could prove that your negligence led to the accident.' This reads as: the plaintiff must show that the defendant’s negligent conduct caused the accident. This aligns with the essential causal link required in negligence: a breach of a duty that caused the injury. It emphasizes causation as the key proving point needed to owe damages, which is the core concept in a simple negligence claim when an accident occurs.
To understand why the first option is less precise, consider that even if harm occurred, there must be a demonstrated breach of duty and a causal connection to the accident; merely proving harm and causation could be read as overlapping with causation but may miss the explicit duty and breach components. The second option cleanly states the necessary causal relationship tied to negligence: the negligent act led to the accident, which in turn caused the injury.
In summary, the second option correctly captures the central idea of simple negligence in this context by focusing on the causation element—that the defendant’s negligence caused the accident—whereas the first option introduces ambiguity by listing harm and causation without explicitly tying them to the breach of duty that negligence entails.

SU25 ECON 522 001 ZFF Self Quiz, Week 4 part 1

A rule of simple negligence means that if you cause an accident that injures another person...

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