Duty of care Flashcards
What is duty
a legal obligation to take risk-reducing precautions in ones activities to avoid injuring other ppl and the duty to use such reasonable care is owed to all foreseeable plaintiffs
Duties required by children
under 5: no standard
ages 5-18: subjective standard (which is pro defendant)
children engaging in adult like behavior held to an adult standard (usually operating a motorized vehicle even farm craft, boats, RVs, jet skis etc)
Duties required by professionals
required to possess the knowledge and skill of an average member of that profession
What duty is owed to unknown trespassers
no duty
what duty is owed to known trespassers (discovered or anticipated trespasser)
Land possessor must warn or make safe any conditions that are:
- Artificial - constructed by people (no duty owed to natural conditions i.e. ice on front steps)
- Highly dangerous involving risk of death or serious bodily harm
- Concealed - AND -
- Known - last known condition
What duty is owed to liscences
Duty to warn or make safe conditions that are:
- Concealed
- Condition does NOT have to be likely to cause death or serious bodily injury
- Known to land possessor in advance
What duty is owed to invitees
Duty to inspect and warn or make safe conditions that are:
- Concealed
- Known to land possessor in advance OR could have been discovered through inspection
List (3)
How can hazardous conditions be eliminated
- Repair
- Replace
- Remove
What is the attractive nuisance doctrine
Duty imposed on landowners to eliminate reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to children
Under the attractive nuisance doctrine, a child trespasser who is injured by a dangerous artificial condition need not have been attracted onto the property by the condition.
List (4)
How is attractive nuisance doctrine established
- dangerous condition on land that owner is or should be aware of
- owner knows or should know that kids might trespass on land
- condition likely to cause injury
- expense of remedy slight in comparison to magnitude of risk
Criminal statute to establish standard of care/negligence per se can be used if:
- P is within protected class
- Statute designed to prevent they type of harm suffered by P
What does negligence per se mean
negligence in it of itself
List (2)
When can statutes be violated
- Compliance with statutes is more dangerous
- Compliance is impossible
A landowner owned several dozen acres of mountain land near a national forest. A plaintiff who was injured by a condition on the owner’s land brought an action for personal injury against the landowner.
In a jurisdiction that applies the traditional rules for landowners and possessors of land, which of the following plaintiffs is most likely to win?
A A 10-year-old trespasser who was swept onto some rocks while attempting to cross a swiftly flowing river.
B A five-year-old trespasser who fell into a mineshaft from which the owner had removed all warning signs, but the plaintiff was not attracted onto the owner’s land because of the mineshaft.
C A five-year-old trespasser who inadvertently stepped into a badger hole that was obscured in the undergrowth.
D A 10-year-old niece visiting the landowner who stepped into a badger hole that the landowner did not know was present but that could have been discovered by inspection.
B A five-year-old trespasser who fell into a mineshaft from which the owner had removed all warning signs, but the plaintiff was not attracted onto the owner’s land because of the mineshaft.
Under the attractive nuisance doctrine, a child trespasser who is injured by a dangerous artificial condition need not have been attracted onto the property by the condition.
(A) is wrong because generally there is no obligation for a landowner to warn trespassers, whether they are children or adults, of dangerous natural conditions.
(C) is wrong for the same reason.
(D) is wrong because, as a licensee, the plaintiff need only be warned of dangerous natural conditions of which the landowner is in fact aware and which are unknown to the licensee or unlikely to be discovered by her, and here the landowner did not know of the hole.
