Law 3101A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Nanosecond, Catastrophic Injury, Legal Guardian

• School: Western University
• Department: Law
• Course: Law 3101A/B
• Professor: Robert Solomon

Document Summary

Traditionally there was no general duty of care in negligence to take positive action to benefit another the law simply required individuals to refrain from wrongful positive acts. Some limited duties of affirmative action were recognized if the parties were in a special relationships or the defendant had a statutory or contractual duty to intervene. The recognized special relationships included parent/child, teacher/student, employer/employee, and healthcare professional/patient. The courts have greatly expanded the number and kinds of situations in which they will recognize a special relationship. Hcps have no general duty of care in negligence to assist at the scene of a crash or other medical emergency if they are bystanders. Practitioners have a duty to render aid if an emergency arises in the course of an existing patient relationship (eg. a patient has a heart attack in the waiting room)