Also known as:injury to persons or property · personal or property injury · personal injury · property damage
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
Physical harm to an individual's body or to tangible items of value. The category excludes purely economic losses and focuses on bodily impairment or damage to physical objects that can be measured by repair costs or diminished value.
See Our Sources
How its tested
Common Examples
6
Legislators' Vote Nullification
State senators Israel Irving and Ivy Ibarra voted against a bill. The lieutenant governor cast a tie-breaking vote that enacted the measure. The senators suffered a concrete personal injury when their votes were nullified and the legislation took effect.
Marital Property Classification
After a car accident, Idris Ives received a damages award for broken bones and medical bills paid from joint accounts. The court classified the recovery as individual property except for the portion already satisfied from marital funds.
Warranty Breach Damages
Ian Iverson bought a truck from Ironclad Industries. A defective brake part caused a crash that injured Ian and damaged the vehicle. Ian recovered consequential damages for the bodily harm and property loss proximately caused by the breach.
Attorney Iris Irons placed an ad stating she handled personal injury and real estate matters and was admitted in two states. The state bar challenged the ad under rules limiting practice-area descriptions, but the truthful non-misleading content was protected.
Conflict in Joint Representation
A firm represented Isaiah Ishikawa, his spouse, their child, and their insurer in a single personal injury matter. When the insurer later sued the spouse, the firm faced disqualification because actual adversity arose despite earlier waivers.
Economic Loss Rule Limit
Innovate Pharmaceuticals sold a machine that malfunctioned and caused both economic loss and physical damage to Inertia Dynamics' factory equipment. The buyer could pursue tort claims because accompanying property damage took the case outside the economic loss rule.
3 common questions
Students Frequently Ask...
How does injury to person or property differ from pure economic loss in products cases?
Injury to person or property involves physical harm to the body or tangible objects. Pure economic loss covers disappointed expectations such as repair costs or lost profits without accompanying physical damage. The economic loss rule bars tort recovery for the latter in products liability but permits claims when physical harm is present.
Supporting sources
When is a personal injury recovery treated as individual rather than marital property?
A recovery for personal injury is individual property except to the extent expenses were paid from marital funds. The classification turns on the source of payment for medical costs and lost earnings rather than the nature of the underlying harm.
Supporting sources
Does a breach of warranty support consequential damages for injury to person or property?
Yes. Consequential damages include injury to person or property proximately caused by the breach. The buyer need not prove the seller knew of particular requirements. The physical harm itself supplies the basis for recovery.
Supporting sources
32 N.J. 358, 161 A.2d 69 (1960)
…with the remedy provided in the case of a defective part. What relief is provided when the breach of the warranty results in personal injury to the buyer? (Injury to third persons using the car in the purchaser’s right will be treated hereafter.) As we have said above, the law is clear that such damages are recoverable under an…