Negligence is the tort that liability insurance deals with most. Think of it as a chain with four links: if any one link is missing, the claim fails.
The four essential elements:
Duty: the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. Every driver, for example, owes other people on the road reasonable care.
Breach: the defendant failed to meet that duty, a want of ordinary care (Civil Code §1714(a)).
Proximate cause: the breach caused the injury through a natural, unbroken chain of events.
Damages: the plaintiff suffered actual harm.
Intent is not an element. A careless driver who never meant to hurt anyone is still negligent. And careless conduct that harms no one gives a court nothing to compensate: a near miss with no injury and no damage fails because the damages element is missing.
Outline wording: the Property outline lists the elements as duty, breach, proximate cause and damages. The Casualty outline writes the last two as "injury (proximate cause)" and "(damages)". The four elements are the same either way.