In other words, there was a legal duty to act or not to act on the part or the defendant. The defendant failed to perform the standard of conduct, and there was a breach of the legal duty. The defendant's failure to act in the standard resulted in an injury to the plaintiff. This is often referred to as proximate cause. Actual damages resulted from the incident.
Gross negligence is a term often used in civil litigation today.
It refers to the intentional failure to perform the duty expected by a reasonable man. This principle has to do with the plaintiff being negligent to some degree also. In those states where contributory negligence is in effect, such a situ ation would rule or bar the plaintiff from any action brought against the defendant. In effect, this is an all or nothing theory. This principle will meas ure the degree of negligence of both the plaintiff and defendant.