FAULT. An improper act or omission, which arises from ignorance, carelessness, or negligence. The act or omission must not have been meditated, and must have caused some injury to another. Lee. Elem. 4 783. See Dotus ; NEGLIGENCE ; 1 Miles, Penn. 40.
Gross fault or neglect consists in not ob serving that care towards others which a man the least attentive usually takes of his own affairs. Such fault may, in some cases, afford a presumption of fraud, and in very gross cases it approaches so near as to be almost undistinguishable from it, especially when the facts seem hardly consistent with an honest intention. But there may be a gross fault without fraud. 2 Strange, 1099 ; Story, Pailm. 44 18-22; Toullier, 1. 3, t. 3, 4 231.
Ordinary faults consist in the omission of that care which mankind generally pay to their own concerns ; that is, the want of or dinary diligence.
A slight fault consists in the want of that care which very attentive persons take of their own affairs. This fault assimilates it self to, and in some cases is scarcely distin guishable from, mere accident or want of foresight.
This division has been adopted lay common law yers from the civil law. Although the civilians generally agree in this division, yet they are not without a difference of opinion. See Pothier, Ob servation generals sur le pr6c6dent•Traite, et sor les suivants, printed at the end of his Traits des Obligations, where he cites Accurse, Alciat, Cujas, Duaren, D'Avezan, Vinnius, and Heineccius, in support of this division. On the other side the
reader is referred to Thomasius, tom. 2, Disserta tionem, page l 006 ; La Brun, cited by Jones, Bailm. 27; and Toullier, Droit Civil Francais, liv. 3, tit. 3, 231.
2. These principles established, different rules have been made as to the responsibili ties of parties for their faults in relation to their contracts. They are reduced by Po dgier to three.
First. In those contracts where the party derives no benefit from his undertaking, he is answerable only for his gross faults.
Second. In those contracts where the parties have a reciprocal interest, as in the contract of sale, they are responsible for ordinary neglect.
Third. In those contracts where the party receives the only advantage, as in the case of loan for use, he is answerable for his slight fault. Pothier, Observ. Generale ; Traits des Oblig. 4 142 ; Jones, Bailm. 119 ; Story; Bailm. 12. See, also, Ayliffe, Pend. 108; La. Civ. Code, 3522 ; 1 Comyns, Dig. 413 ; 5 id. 184 ; Weekett, Ins. 370.