DUTY

b. Business relationships:  In recent years, most courts have extended this rule imposing a duty of care to business generally: anyone who maintains business premises must use reasonable care to furnish warning and assistance to a business visitor, regardless of the source of the danger or harm. See Rest.2d, §314A.

Example:  P, 6 years old, is shopping with his mother in the D Department Store. Through no negligence of D, P’s fingers get caught in the escalator and severed. D unreasonably delays calling for an ambulance, thereby aggravating P’s injuries.

P will be entitled to damages for the aggravation of his injuries. Since D operated business premises, D and its employees had an affirmative duty to make reasonable efforts to assist anyone who came into peril on the premises.

c. Employer:  Similarly, it has been established for a long time that an employer must give warning and assistance to an employee who is endangered or injured during the course of his employment.

d. Third Restatement has seven categories:  The new Third Restatement list seven types of “special relationships” that impose a duty of care “ with regard to risks that arise within the scope of the relationship.” The list includes these relationships:

[1]  “a common carrier with its passengers”;

[2]  “an innkeeper with its guests”;

[3]  “a business or other possessor of land that holds its premises open to the public with those who are lawfully on the premises”;

[4]  “an employer with its employees who are: (a) in imminent danger; or (b) injured and thereby helpless”;

[5]  “a school with its students”;

[6]  “a landlord with its tenants”; and

[7]  “a custodian with those in its custody, if a) the custodian is required by law to take custody or voluntarily takes custody of the other; and b) the custodian has a superior ability to protect the other.” (Example:  The duty of a jailer to a prisoner.)

See Rest. 3d (Liab. for Phys. & Emot. Harm) §41.