Duty - Limited Duty Flashcards
What are the Rowland factors?
For making a public policy argument for duty
- The foreseeability of the harm to the plaintiff
- The degree of certainty that the plaintiff suffered injury
- The closeness of the connection between D’s conduct and P’s injury
- The moral blame attached D’s conduct
- The policy of preventing future harm
- The extent of the burden to the defendant and the consequences to the community of imposing the duty to exercise care with resulting liability for breach
- The availability, cost, and prevalence of insurance for the risk involved
Limited Duty
Types of Land Possessor Duty
- Status trichotomy
- Unitary standard
- Hybrid
- Landlord
Limited Duty - Land Posessor
Three statuses under status trichotomy
- Invitee
- Licensee
- Trespasser
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
Define Invitee
- Someone who has express or implied consent of the posessor to be on the property
- Is there either to provide an economic benefit or the property is open to the public
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
SOC for Invitee
Landowner owes a duty of reasonable care (RPPSSC)
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
Define Licensee
One who enters and remains on land with owner’s consent (express or implied)
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
SOC for Licensee
Land owner has a duty
1. To not willfully harm,
2. To not engage in gross negligence, and
3. To warn or make safe any known concealed dangerous conditions (no duty to warn of unknown dangers and no duty to inspect the land for dangers)
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
Define Trespasser
Party who enters land without
1. Permission,
2. Lawful authority,
3. Invitation, or
4. Privilege
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
SOC for Trespasser
Land possessor must avoid causing injury to the trespasser through willful or wanton conduct or through gross negligence; some jx for trespassers only allow for artificial conditions
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy
Exceptions for Trespasser status
- Known or frequent trespasser
- Children and attractive nuisance doctrine
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy - Trespasser
Define known or frequent trespasser and what duty is owed?
If the possessor has a reason to know of the presence of the trespasser, the land possessor owes a duty to exercise care to warn or make safe:
Known, concealed, artificial conditions that involve risk of serious bodily harm
Limited Duty - Land Posessor - Status Trichotomy - Trespasser
Define Children and the attractive nuisance doctrine
- The condition must be artificial and
- The LP must have reason to know that children are likely to trespass and
- The condition is one which the LP had reason to know that it will involve a risk of causing serious harm and
- Children would not discover the condition or realize the risk involved by intermeddling and
- The utility to the LP of maintaining and the burden of eliminating the danger are slight as compared to the risk to the children and
- The LP fails to exercise reasonable care to eliminate the danger or protect the children
Limited Duty - Land Posessor
Define Unitary Standard
Land possessor owes a duty of reasonable care to anyone on the property regardless of status (some exceptions for those who entered with “criminal mischief”)
Limited Duty - Land Posessor
Define the Hybrid Approach
Possessor owes a duty of reasonable care to invitees and licensees; same rules for trespasser as in status trichotomy
What is the duty for an injury occurring outside of the border of the LP’s property?
No duty except trees in urban areas, but LP must have constructive knowledge of the tree’s condition that caused the harm. If it is caused by an artificial condition on the land a duty of reasonable care is owed
Limited Duty
Duty for landlords
Generally landlords have no duty to tenants for injuries that occur inside the rented space
Limited Duty - Landlords
Exceptions to no duty for landlords
- Common areas
- Negligent repairs
- Undisclosed dangerous conditions that should have been known to the landlord
- Landlord’s knowledge that property will be open to the public
Limited Duty
Negligent Entrustment
- The defendant supplied a 3d party with the chattel for use by the 3d party
- The supplier of the chattel should have known that the 3d party would use the chattel in a manner involving an unreasonable risk of harm (did party act reasonably when they gave the chattel to the 3d party?)
- The harm resulted from the use of the chattel
Limited Duty
Define Primary Assumption of Risk
D is not liable when P gets injured due to a risk or danger that is inherent to the activity that p chose to participate in (playing baseball and getting hit by a pitch)
Limited Duty
Duty of Alcohol Purveyors
- Commercial purveyors may have a duty to 3d parties injured by the intoxicated person (normally no duty to the intoxicated 1st party unless person is a minor).
- Social hosts rarely have a duty (unless party is a minor)
Limited Duty
Dram Shop Laws
Most states allow P to bring claim if dram shop serves alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person who goes on to cause harm to others as a result of their intoxication
Limited Duty
California Dram Shop Law
- Any person who serves a common drunkard or intoxicated person is guilty of a misdemeanor
- No person who does (1) shall be civilly liable to any injured person whose injury is caused by the intoxication
Limited Duty
Duty of Gun Manufacturers
Usually no duty due to statutory immunity. Exceptions: Duty if the seller should have known that the transaction was illegal (straw buyers); negligent marketing
Limited Duty - Public Duty
Police duty to act
Typically no duty for failiing to protect individual citizens.
For duty to exist there must be more than a general relationship established:
1. If police undertook to act and
2. Created reliance or
* Enlisted the aid of the plaintiff increasing their risk of harm
