Special duty rules pt2 (DUTY TO PROTECT THIRD PARTIES FROM ANOTHER’S HARM)

Question 1

what gives rise to Healthcare workers’ duty to protect others?

Answer 1

• (a) a special relation exists between the actor and the third person which imposes a duty upon the actor to control the third person’s conduct, or
  -(b) a special relation exists between the actor and the other which gives the other a right to protection

Question 2

Healthcare workers’ duty to protect others in the context of mental disability.

Answer 2

A therapist owes a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect a third party by warning that person of a specific and immediate threat of serious bodily injury targeted at the person by a specific individual who is in a treatment relationship with the therapist.

Question 3

Healthcare workers’ duty to protect others in the context of infectious disease.

Answer 3

A physician has an affirmative legal duty to warn, and is liable for negligently failing to do so, family members or others who are foreseeably at risk of exposure to a disease contracted by an individual the physician is treating (this is in the context of negligently failing to diagnose the disease and to warn the patient’s wife of the risk of exposure).

Question 4

Duty in the Employer-Employee relationship to protect others.

Answer 4

An employer who exercises control over a known incapacitated employee has a duty to take reasonable action to prevent the employee from causing an unreasonable risk of harm to others (case ex: employee intoxicated and wanted to drive home).