Failure to Prevent Harm as a Basis for Liability: the “Special Relationship” Exception
In the law of negligence, an individual is liable for the personal injuries of another only if he has breached a duty of care owed to that person. Generally speaking, the individual only has a duty to refrain from engaging in “misfeasance.”
Misfeasance may be characterized as an action taken by a person creating a risk of harm foreseeable to an ordinary person. For example, a person changing lanes without checking his mirrors or blind spots engages in misfeasance because his actions create an obvious (foreseeable) risk of a motor vehicle accident in Tennessee.
On the other hand, individuals are not typically liable for “nonfeasance.” Nonfeasance may be characterized as a failure of an individual to act in such a manner that would save another from personal injury or wrongful death in Knoxville. For example, nonfeasance would be a failure of an individual to call 911 upon observing an assault on another in a grocery store parking lot.
Surprisingly, this failure to act (nonfeasance) would not give rise to a legal duty unless there was some special relationship between the victim and the person failing to act.
“Special relationships” recognized by law reduce the harshness of the “no-duty to act” rule. In Tennessee, special relationships include parent/child, police officer/person-in-custody, rescuer/rescued, and landlord/tenant. To illustrate, in a 2008 opinion, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower court because it failed to recognize that the landlord had a duty to protect tenants from those who had previously committed violent acts on the premises.
If you have been seriously injured because of a person’s negligent act or omission, learn more about your rights by calling 866-853-2888 to speak with a skilled and experienced Knoxville personal injury attorney at Baker Associates.
