Duty of Care

The trial court erred in granting defendant summary judgment in this suit by a spectator injured by a foul ball during a college baseball game. Despite primary assumption of the risk, the venue has a duty to take reasonable steps to increase safety and minimize the risk of injury to spectators at its baseball games, if it could do so… Read More

The department and its employees did not owe a duty to warn the decedent of a parolee's violent tendencies.  The victim was not in a special relationship with the department.  The department had not made any representations to her regarding her safety or the parolee's likely future acts, so she was not relying on the department to warn her of… Read More

A school owes a duty to protect students from sexual abuse by school employees, even if the school does not have actual knowledge of a particular employee’s history of committing, or propensity to commit, such abuse.  However, to hold a school liable for failure to report suspected child abuse as required by Pen. Code, § 11164 et seq., the plaintiff… Read More

The Catholic church has a special relationship with minor parishioners who are in its custody and control when attending catechism classes or other church-sponsored programs, on church premises or elsewhere.  The Rowland factors provide no reason to immunize the church from owing a duty of care to protect such parishioners from sexual abuse by priests or other church employees.  That… Read More

An independent insurance agent that transacts business with many insurance companies is an agent of the insured, not any of the insurance companies, more akin to an insurance broker than a true insurance agent.  The insurer owes no duty of care to supervise such an agent and is not liable for the agent's torts.  In determining whether an applicant meets… Read More

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

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

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

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

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