On Monday, Travis took his four-wheeler to Reppart's Equipment & Service for repair because the steering was not working properly. On Friday he called Reppart's to see if his four-wheeler was ready because he wanted it for a weekend trip. Reppart's said
they had done the major repairs but that the steering system still needed some work and they needed another few days to finish the repairs. Travis told them he would pick the four-wheeler up and use it for the weekend and then bring it back to have them finish their work. While riding with friends on the weekend, Travis ran into someone because the steering stuck and he couldn't swerve to avoid them. Discuss how a court would determine causation in a negligence suit against Travis.
Courts look at two issues to determine causation: Was the defendant's behavior the factual cause of the harm? Was this type of harm foreseeable?
If Travis's breach of duty physically led to the ultimate harm, it is the factual cause. Since Travis knew the repairs were not completed, his unreasonable behavior in using the four-wheeler was the factual cause of the harm to the plaintiff.
For Travis to be liable, the type of harm must have been reasonably foreseeable. Travis could easily foresee that a bad steering system could cause an accident while he was riding. He need not have foreseen the exact results, but he could foresee the general type of harm involving defective steering. Therefore, in this case the factual cause and foreseeable harm elements of a negligence suit against Travis would have been met.
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