Also known as: accidents · accidental · accidentally · unforeseen event · casualty
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An unintended and unforeseen injurious occurrence. The event must arise without foresight or expectation and without being the product of a voluntary act or design.
Prosecutors charged Ava with arson after a warehouse fire. They offered evidence that two months earlier she had started a small blaze in another building owned by the same company. The court admitted the prior incident to show that the charged fire was not an accident.
Anika entered a grocery store operated by Alliance Holdings. While she shopped, another customer knocked over a display that struck her. She sued the store, alleging it failed to exercise reasonable care to protect invitees from accidental acts of third persons on the premises.
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Alfred was injured in a car crash. Thirty days later an attorney mailed him a solicitation letter offering representation. State rules barred such direct mailings to accident victims for thirty days. The restriction was upheld as a permissible limit on commercial speech aimed at protecting privacy during a vulnerable period.
Atlas Ventures contracted to sell a specific vintage automobile to Alexandra. Before delivery the car was destroyed in an accidental garage fire through no fault of either party. The contract was avoided because the goods suffered total casualty before risk of loss passed.
Austin granted a mortgage on commercial property to Apollo Energy. A storm later caused roof damage that allowed rain to ruin interior finishes. Austin made no repairs. The mortgagee could not recover for waste because the damage resulted from casualty rather than the mortgagor's voluntary or negligent conduct.
Alexis suffered a leg fracture when struck by a negligent driver. While using crutches she lost balance on stairs and broke her wrist. The original tortfeasor was held liable for the wrist injury because it was a normal consequence of the impaired physical condition caused by the first accident.
An accident is an unintended occurrence that does not result from a voluntary act. Criminal liability requires a voluntary bodily movement. When a defendant's movement is convulsive or reflexive, the resulting harm is treated as accidental and cannot support liability absent some earlier voluntary act.
Evidence of another act is admissible when offered for a non-propensity purpose such as proving absence of mistake or lack of accident. The prior act must be relevant to show that the charged event was not accidental, and its probative value must not be substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice.
A mortgagor is not liable for waste when damage results from casualty such as storm or fire. The duty to repair extends only to ordinary wear and tear or damage caused by the mortgagor or those under the mortgagor's control. Natural casualties fall outside that duty.
…v. New York , 198 U. S. 45, 76 (1905): "[The Constitution] is made for people of fundamentally differing views, and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the…