MBE Multistate Bar Examination — All Questions

The four traditional elements of a negligence claim are:

• a.Duty, breach, causation, and damages✓
• b.Offer, acceptance, consideration, and writing
• c.Intent, motive, opportunity, and harm
• d.Malice, custody, arrest, and trial

A negligence claim generally requires a duty owed to the plaintiff, a breach of that duty, causation (both actual and proximate), and damages. Each element must be established for the claim to succeed.

Under general tort principles, the intentional tort of battery involves:

• a.A careless statement that harms reputation
• b.Intentional harmful or offensive contact with another person✓
• c.Failure to complete a contract
• d.Entering land with permission

Battery is an intentional act causing harmful or offensive contact with another person (or something closely connected to them) without consent. It is an intentional tort, distinct from negligence, which involves unintended harm from unreasonable conduct.

In evaluating breach of duty in negligence, the standard of care is generally measured by:

• a.What the particular defendant personally believed was safe
• b.The defendant's best possible effort
• c.The conduct of a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances✓
• d.Whatever custom the defendant's industry follows, without exception

Negligence generally uses an objective standard: how a reasonably prudent person would act under the same or similar circumstances. This objective 'reasonable person' measure does not turn on the individual defendant's personal beliefs, though special standards can apply to certain actors.