Culpa
fault
Culpa is a Latin legal term referring to fault or negligence without intent. It constitutes the basis for liability for negligent conduct.
In Dutch law, culpa denotes a form of fault by which a person may be held liable for damage caused by careless or negligent conduct. The concept is employed primarily in the law of obligations and the law of liability, where it is distinguished from dolus, which concerns intentional conduct.
The significance of culpa lies in its function as the threshold for establishing liability in tort or for breach of contract. Absent culpa, a claim for damages will generally fail, unless the statute in question imposes strict liability.
In practice, the court examines whether the act or omission deviates from the standard of conduct that a reasonable and prudent person would have observed in the same circumstances, having regard to all relevant facts of the case.
“The insurer submitted that there was no cover because the damage had been caused by the gross negligence of the insured.”
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