To establish a claim for negligence, a plaintiff must plead 1) the existence of a duty owed by the defendant to the plaintiff, 2) a breach of that duty, 3) the breach of that duty was the proximate of plaintiff’s injuries. Greenberg, Trager & Herbst, LLP v HSBC Bank USA, 17 N.Y.3d 565, 576 (2011).

Negligence claims are typically the basis for a personal injury action.  The usual examples of this are where a plaintiff sues for money damages arising from injuries after a car accident, a slip and fall, or possibly medical malpractice.  These are called tort claims.  Our firm does not handle these type of claims but refers clients to qualified experienced attorneys when necessary.  However, negligence claims can and do also arise in the context of commercial and business disputes.  Where a party owed a duty of care and that party’s carelessness causes damages, a negligence claim can be brought.  This type of claim can be combined with other claims such as breach of contract, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.