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Duty of Care

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Brown v. USA Taekwando (2021)

As a general rule, a defendant owes no duty to protect another against harm that the defendant's own act or omission has not caused.  In particular, a defendant generally owes no duty of care to protect another from a third party's wrongful acts.  In deciding whether an exception to that general rule applies to a particular case, the court should… Read More

Hernandez v. Jensen (2021)

Daughter owed a duty of care to in-home healthcare aides she hired to assist her two elderly parents to warn the aides that there were loaded firearms on the premises.  It is foreseeable that a worker in the home would be injured by a loaded weapon, and public policy favored imposing a duty on the daughter who knew of the… Read More

Sabetian v. Exxon Mobil Corp. (2020)

After Iran nationalized its oil industry in 1951, it owned the oil fields and Abadan oil refinery.  Iram contracted with international oil companies for those companies to provide management and other services to operating companies that were incorporated in the Netherlands and owned in part by the international companies and in part by Iram.  This decision holds that the international… Read More

Shipp v. Western Engineering, Inc. (2020)

A contractor repairing a highway owes a duty of care to motorists using the highway.  The duty of care extends to protecting motorists from dangers on property adjacent to the repairs the contractor is performing.  See Ray v. Silverado Constructors (2002) 98 Cal.App.4th 1120, 1134; Thirion v. Fredrickson & Watson Construction Co. (1961) 193 Cal.App.2d 299, 304-305,  Here, the contractor… Read More

Murray v. UPS Capital Ins. Agency, Inc. (2020)

Generally, an insurance agent owes only a regular agent's duties of reasonable care, diligence, and judgment in procuring the insurance requested by an insured.  However, an insurance agent may assume a greater duty to the insured when one of the following three exceptions arise: “(a) the agent misrepresents the nature, extent or scope of the coverage being offered or provided,… Read More

Hanouchian v. Steele (2020)

A sorority did not owe a duty of care to guests of its off-campus party to protect them from assault and battery by uninvited persons crashing the party.  The measures that plaintiff claimed the sorority should have taken to prevent the harm--hiring private security personnel and maintaining and enforcing an invited guest list--were highly burdensome.  To justify that degree of… Read More

University of Southern California v. Superior Court

by Jan T. Chilton |

A university does not owe a non-student a duty of care with respect to physical safety at unsponsored, unauthorized third party activities off-campus such as a fraternity party, even if the university exercises some minimal control through university policies and police patrols. Read More

Jabo v. YMCA of San Diego County

by Jan T. Chilton |

Neither statutory nor common law imposed a duty of care on the YMCA to administer a heart defibrillator to a participant in a soccer league that rented one of the YMCA's fields when the participant suffered a heart attack while playing soccer.  Read More

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