Special Relationships

Relationships like carrier-passenger or innkeeper-guest create affirmative duties of protection.

Representative cases

• Westin Operator, LLC v. Groh 2015 CO 25 · Supreme Court of Colorado
• Rasnick v. Krishna Hospitality, Inc. 713 S.E.2d 835 · Supreme Court of Georgia
• Riedel v. ICI Americas Inc. 968 A.2d 17 · Supreme Court of Delaware

Related Negligence rules

• Negligence: DutyDuty requires defendant to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances to avoid foreseeable risks of harm.
• Standard of Care: Reasonable PersonStandard is objective; mental impairments irrelevant; physical disabilities incorporated.
• Custom EvidenceCustom is relevant but not conclusive of reasonable care.
• Professionals StandardProfessionals must meet the skill and knowledge of the average practitioner in the community.
• Informed ConsentDoctors must disclose risks a reasonable patient would consider material.
• Negligence Per SeViolation of a safety statute establishes duty and breach if plaintiff is in protected class and risk matches…
• Duty to RescueGenerally no duty to rescue absent special relationship or assumption of duty.
• Negligent Infliction of Emotional DistressNIED requires physical danger, zone-of-danger exposure, or bystander presence with close relationship.

Part of Torts on Core Legal Rules — foundational MBE-tested principles with primary-source citations.