Negligence (continued)

Generally speaking, a person is under no duty to aid another in distress. As a matter of law, it has been held that a bystander who does not create dangerous situation is not required to help another, to become a "Good Samaritan", and to prevent injury to others. If a person has only mere knowledge of a dangerous situation, the only duty is a moral duty to warn or render aid (and no legal duty). Additionally, a person has no legal duty to protect another person from the criminal acts and activities of a third person.

However, in some situations, negligence liability may be imputed to a nonactor because of some special relationship between the defendant and the third person. These special relationships may include employer and employee (perhaps in an oil rig accident scenario), driver and passenger, owner and driver, bailor and bailee, partnership, or joint enterprise. For instance, if the party in charge of a dangerous person knew or reasonably should have known of the dangers that person posed, then the persons foreseeably exposed to such danger may be owed a duty of care.

As previously noted, in order to recover in a negligence action, the plaintiff must establish both the existence of a duty and the violation, or breach, of that duty by the defendant. Someone can breach a duty owed by acting or doing something (active negligence), or by not doing something that should have been done (passive negligence). For example, in construction accident cases, active negligence may be the dropping of scaffolding material on a worker below.

The duty owed under the particular situation is also determined by the particular situation involved. The duty owed to a foreseeable plaintiff has been held to be different from the duty owed to an unforeseeable plaintiff. Certain plaintiffs, such as rescuers, may be owed a higher degree of care than a foreseeable plaintiff.

Contact Brownsville personal injury attorney Scott Nelson if you have been injured by somebody else’s negligence and need experienced counsel.  Our firm represents clients in Corpus Christi, Houston, Laredo, and throughout Texas.