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. Leg. Eldm. § 783.
In legal literature it is the equivalent of "negligence." An error or defect of judg ment or conduct; any deviation from pru dence, rectitude, or duty; any shortcoming or neglect of care or performance resulting from inattention, incapacity, or perversity; a wrong tendency, course, or act. Louisville, E. & St. L. R. Co. v. Berry, 2 Ind. App. 427, 28 N. E. 714.
Gross fault or neglect consists hi 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 Stra. 1099; Story, BalIm. § 18; Toullier, L 3, t. 3, § 231.
Ordinary fault consists in the omission of that care which mankind generally pay to their own concerns; that is, the want of ordinary diligence.
A slight fault consists in the want of that care which very attentive persons take of their own affairs. This fault assimilates
itself to, and in some cases is scarcely dis tinguishable from, mere accident or want of foresight.
Thie division has been adopted by 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 generale sur le precedent Traits et sur lee suivants, printed at the end of his Traits. des Obli gations, where he cites Accussus, Alciat, Cujas, Duaren, D'Avezan, Vinnius, and Heineccius, in port of this division. On the other side the reader is referred to Thomasius, tom. 2, Dissertationern, page 1006 ; Le Brun, cited by Jones, Bailm. 27 ; and Toullier, Droit Civil Francais, liv. 3, tit. 3, 9 231.
These principles established, different rules have been made as to the responsibilities of parties for their faults in relation to their contracts. They have been reduced to three. See BAILMENT; DOLUS ; NEGLIGENCE,.
See 2 Sto. Bailm. 24, for a discussion of the definition and classification of fault from Ayliffe, Pand.