Duty

Question 1

General Standard

Answer 1

All persons owe a duty to behave as a reasonably prudent person in the conduct of their activities to avoid injuring foreseeable victims. Foreseeable victims are those who are foreseeably endangered by the defendant’s conduct.

Question 2

Adjusted Standards

Answer 2

Children: held to the standard of a child of similar age, intelligence and experience, unless engaged in a dangerous adult activity
-no children under 5

Professionals: held to the standard of an average member of their profession

Superior Skill: required to exercise that experience

Relevant Physical Characteristics: reasonable person with those same characteristics

Emergency: reasonable person under those same emergency conditions

Question 3

Possessor of Land w/ Trespassors

Answer 3

Undiscovered trespasser: no duty

Discovered/anticipated trespasser: duty to warn/make safe any conditions that are artificial, highly dangerous, concealed, and known to owner

Trespassing Children: duty to avoid a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to children caused by dangerous artificial conditions if the owner is/should be aware of it, owner knows/should know that children might trespass, it is likely to cause injury, and the expense of remedying it is slight compared with the risk.

Question 4

Possessor of Land w/ Non-Trespassors

Answer 4

Licensee/Social Guest (comes by permission, for their own purpose): duty to warn/make safe any conditions that are dangerous, concealed, and known to the owner.

Invitee (business/public purpose): duty to warn/make safe any conditions that are dangerous, concealed, and known to the owner or reasonably discoverable on inspection

Question 5

Statutory Duty

Answer 5

A specific duty imposed by a criminal statute may replace the more general duty of care if
-the plaintiff is in the class protected by the statute and
-the statute was designed to prevent the kind of harm suffered by the plaintiff

Question 6

Affirmative Duties

Answer 6

No affirmative duties to act unless there is a special relationship between the parties, someone placed the other in peril, someone undertakes to aid someone, or someone with ability to control a persons actions knows he is likely to commit acts that would require exercise of this control.