Contributory Negligence

Contributory negligence is a common law defense to a claim based on negligence, an action in tort. It applies to cases where plaintiffs have, through their own negligence, contributed to cause the damages they incurred as a result of defendants' negligence. For example, a pedestrian crosses a road carelessly and is hit by a driver who is also driving carelessly. Contributory negligence is distinguishable from  contribution, which is a claim brought by one or more  defendants seeking to have a third party pay some or all of any money damages awarded to a plaintiff.
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Noun
1. (law) behavior by the plaintiff that contributes to the harm resulting from the defendant's negligence; in common law any degree of contributory negligence would bar the plaintiff from collecting damages
(hypernym) negligence, carelessness, neglect, nonperformance
(classification) law, jurisprudence

The negligence of a person which, while not being the primary cause of a tort, nevertheless combined with the act or omission of the primary defendant to cause the tort, and without which the tort would not have occurred. - (read more on Contributory negligence)
  

Prevents a party from recovering for damages if he or she contributed in any way to the injury. Not all states follow this system.