Law 3101A/B Chapter 8: HCL - CHAPTER 8
Document Summary
Traditionally, there was no general duty of care in negligence to take positive action to bene t another person. Rather, the law simply required individuals to refrain from wrongful positive acts. Some limited duties of af rmative action were recognized if the parties were in a special relationship or the defendant had a statutory or contractual duty to intervene. The recognized special relationships included parent/child, teacher/student, occupier/entrant, employer/employee, and healthcare professional/patient. The courts have greatly expanded the number and kinds of situations in which they will recognize a special relation-ship. Part 1: duties to rescue, render aid, treat, and refer (a) the duty to rescue and render aid. Practitioners have no common law duty of care in negligence to assist at the scene of a crash or other medical emergency. Practitioners have a duty to render aid if an emergency arises in the course of an existing patient relationship (e. g. a patient has a heart attack in the waiting room).
