CUL'PA. At Roman law, Napa sometimes means fault in general, but in the narrower and usual sense it designates carelessness or negli gence. When damage has been done -without right and willfully (dolt)), the doer is always responsible. When damage is occasioned by a careless act or by failure to act as a careful person would act, the person chargeable with carelessness is not usually responsible unless he be under some special obligation to exercise care (diligcntia I. Such an obligation regularly ex ists only in contractual and quasi-contractual relations: and here the question what degree of carelessness creates liability depends upon the degree of care which the law requires. The stan dard, in most cases, is the care commonly exer cised in similar matters by a good householder (diligentia boni penis familitc). Exceptionally, in some cases, a person who is habitually seine careless is held to that degree of care only which he is aecustomed to exercise in his own affairs Idiligcntia quam. in. suis). This is true when the advantage of the contractual relation is wholly on the other side, as in the deposit for safe-keeping without remuneration. and also when the other party is chargeable with negli gence if he enters into relations with a careless person, as in partnership. By reason, however, of the fiduciary character of these relations, the careless depositary or partner who has failed to exercise even that degree of care which he is wont to exercise in his own affairs is regarded as guilty of willful wrong ((loins). In con
tractual relations very gross carelessness (eulpe late) is also treated as willful wrong. Whether this is true outside of contractual relations— whether very gross carelessness begets an action on tort—is disputed. Regularly, of course, at Roman law as at English law, action on tort lies only when willful intent can be shown or pre sumed. Exceptionally, however, and by statutory rule (lea Aquilia), the person who has damaged another's property by a careless act is liable although no contractual relation exists between the parties.
At modern civil law most of the Roman rules still obtain. legislators, however, have generally discarded the exceptional standard of the diligeutia quan• in suis; and the French civil code (art, 1383) and some of the codes based on the French, e.g. the Spanish civil code (art. 1089), lay down the broad rule that every person of sound mind xvho has reached the age of dis cretion is responsible for damage occasioned by his negligence. whether of act or of omission; but these pro•,isions have not been interpreted as creating a general duty to act in the interest of strangers. For the English and American ap plications of the civil law doctrine, see BAIL MFINT; NEGLIGENCE. Consult the authorities re ferred to under CIVIL LAW.