Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

contributory negligence

1. A plaintiff's own negligence that played a part in causing the plaintiff's injury and that is significant enough (in a few jurisdictions) to bar the plaintiff from recovering damages. ( In most jurisdictions, this defense has been superseded by comparative negligence. See CONTRIBUTORY-NEGLIGENCE DOCTRINE. 2. Rare. The negligence of a third party - neither the plaintiff nor the defendant - whose act or omission played a part in causing the plaintiff's injury. "The contributory negligence of a third party is no excuse for the negligence of the defendant." Thomas E. Holland, The Elements of Jurisprudence 154 (13th ed. 1924).