The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.
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
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
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
A golf course owes a duty of care to its patrons to take reasonable steps to protect them from swarms of ground-nesting yellow jackets. Read More
An employer-hired safety consultant owes employees a duty of care even if he does not assume all of the employer’s safety obligations to employees. Read More
An appraiser hired to provide an appraisal for the lender's use does not owe the borrower a duty of care. Read More
Only damages proximately caused by the defendant’s tort are recoverable; here, that principle barred recovery for wrongful death in 2011 from a second accident to which injuries sustained due to defendant’s 2004 tort allegedly contributed. Read More
A college owes its students a duty of care to protect them from foreseeable harm (here, an attack by a mentally troubled student) in the classroom during a college course, since students are dependent on their colleges for a safe environment and colleges have a superior ability to provide that safety for activities and facilities under their control. Read More
Voluntary drug abuse treatment center owes no common law duty of care to its enrollees to protect them from absconding to obtain drugs. Read More
A bar and dance club owed a duty of care to protect patrons against sexual assault in its bathroom areas; a unisex bathroom with ADA stalls that had floor to ceiling walls and lockable doors, together with the sexually charged atmosphere of the club and lax security guard policy, indicated there was a clearly foreseeable risk of nonconsensual sex in… Read More
