Legal Definitions - avoidable

Avoidable describes something that could have been prevented, stopped, or chosen against, meaning its occurrence was not an inevitable outcome. In legal contexts, this term often refers to:

• An event or harm that could have been prevented through reasonable care or action, without requiring excessive effort or expense.
• A legal agreement or transaction that can be legally cancelled or invalidated by one of the parties.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of "avoidable":

• A homeowner leaves a garden hose stretched across their walkway after watering plants. A delivery person, not seeing the hose, trips and sprains an ankle. The injury was avoidable because the homeowner could have easily coiled and moved the hose, taking a reasonable preventative measure to prevent harm to visitors.

• A manufacturing company discovers a minor defect in a batch of products that, if left uncorrected, could lead to a safety hazard for consumers. Fixing the defect would involve a moderate cost and a slight delay in shipping. The company decides to ship the products as is to meet a deadline. If a consumer is later injured by the defect, that harm would be considered avoidable. The company had a practical opportunity to eliminate the risk without incurring prohibitive expense or hardship, but chose not to.

• A 17-year-old signs a contract to purchase a new motorcycle from a dealership. In many jurisdictions, contracts entered into by minors are avoidable. This means the minor has the legal right to cancel or invalidate the contract, even if they initially agreed to it, because they are not yet considered to have full legal capacity to enter into such agreements.