In addition to being responsible for our own actions, Louisiana imposes “strict liability” for damages caused by persons for whom we are answerable for things that we have in our custody.
In order to prove that the owner or custodian of a thing is liable for damages caused by a ruin, vice or defect of that thing, the person filing the lawsuit must prove the following:
That the owner knew, or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known of the ruin, vice or defect with caused the damage;
That the damage could have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care; and
That the owner failed to exercise such reasonable care.
The same criteria must be met in an action against the owner of a building for damage occasioned by the building’s ruin if that damage is caused by neglect to repair it or, is the result of a vice or defect in the original construction.
In the same respect, parents are responsible for damage caused by their minor or un-emancipated children.
In an employment situation, an employer may be answerable for damage caused by their employees if the employee is functioning in the capacity for which they are employed and when the employer might have prevented the act which caused the damage and did not do so.
The owner of an animal may be answerable for the damage caused by that animal if the person claiming damage can show the following:
That the owner knew or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known that his animal’s behavior would cause damages;
That the damage could have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care; and
That he failed to exercise such reasonable care.
Regardless of these provisions, the owner of an animal is strictly liable for damages for injury to persons or property caused by that animal if the owner could have prevented the damage. This is not the case if the damages resulted from the injured person’s provocation of the animal.
