Proximate Negligance You Decide: The Law Who

Proximate Negligance

You Decide: The Law

Who is to blame?

Factual Summary

Suzy Marks and her friends Jerry and Kate were ordered to leave Elsewhere City Park at the 11pm curfew time by Officer Ruthless. Suzy told the Officer she wanted to wait for her friend Orson, who was supposed to pick her up at 11pm or said she would walk the short distance home. Officer Ruthless ordered her into Jerry's vehicle and said she should leave immediately. Jerry made several stops on the way home and got into an accident, causing Suzy to be injured

Was Officer Ruthless' action the proximate cause of Suzy's injuries?

Restate or summarize the question. What is the legal question you are going to answer?

Was Officer Ruthless negligent?

Legal concept(s)

According to McCollum v. CBS, "the threshold and, in this case, dispositive question with respect to the assertion of a claim for negligence is whether any duty was owed to the plaintiffs" (8). Officer Ruthless, as a public servant, had a duty to ensure that the park's curfew was upheld but also to protect the safety of the young people. Officer Ruthless should also have anticipated possible injury given Suzy's reticence and the fact that she was sitting in a truck without a seatbelt (although seatbelts are not required in the back of camper trucks by law).

In Herrara et al. v. Quality Pontiac, Quality Pontiac was found to be the proximate cause of a vehicular injury because by instructing customers to leave car keys in the vehicle, they made the cars very likely to be stolen and involved in high-speed car crashes. The court found in Herrara: "we conclude that an owner or one in possession of a vehicle who leaves a key in the ignition of an unattended and unlocked car owes a duty of ordinary care to those individuals injured in an automobile accident involving the vehicle when a thief steals the car and negligently or criminally causes the accident."

Analysis/conclusion