What term refers to the control by the defendant alone of the instrument that caused harm?

• A. Exclusive control
• B. Comparative negligence
• C. Pure comparative negligence rule
• D. Assumption-of-risk defense

Answer: (A)

Exclusive control refers to the defendant’s sole control over the instrumentality that caused the harm. This matters because when the instrumentality is under the defendant’s exclusive control, it strengthens the case that the defendant’s breach of duty led to the injury. It’s a key factor in situations where res ipsa loquitur might apply—the type of accident would not normally occur without negligence, and with exclusive control there’s little opportunity for others to cause the harm. The other concepts involve fault allocation between parties or defenses based on the plaintiff’s assumption of risk, which do not describe who controlled the instrumentality.