Legal Definitions - fortuitous

Fortuitous describes something that happens purely by chance, without any deliberate planning or intention. It's important to understand that while the word is often mistakenly used to mean "fortunate" or "lucky," its legal and literal meaning is neutral. A fortuitous event simply occurs unexpectedly, regardless of whether its outcome is good, bad, or indifferent.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a fortuitous event:

• Imagine a construction worker accidentally drops a wrench from a scaffold, and it *fortuitously* lands in a pile of soft sand, narrowly missing a pedestrian below. The dropping of the wrench and its specific landing spot were not planned or intended; they happened by chance. While the outcome was fortunate (no one was hurt), the event itself is described as fortuitous because it was an accidental occurrence.

• A homeowner leaves a window open during a sudden, unexpected downpour, and a gust of wind *fortuitously* blows a stack of important papers off their desk, scattering them across the room. The papers being blown off the desk was not an intended consequence of leaving the window open, nor was it a predictable outcome. It was a random, chance event caused by the specific timing of the wind and rain.

• During a complex legal case, a lawyer discovers a crucial piece of evidence in an old, unorganized box of documents that was being cleared out of storage. The discovery was *fortuitous* because the lawyer was not specifically looking for that document in that box at that time; it was found by chance during an unrelated task. The outcome was beneficial to the case, but the manner of discovery was accidental and unplanned.