QUESTION PRESENTED
Does a business incur liability for a wrongful death claim if someone asks to use their phone to make an emergency phone call to police to prevent serious bodily harm of an individual?
BRIEF ANSWER
Yes. The Circle Inn employee’s actions displayed a disregard for human life and the burden on him was minimal. A person may not have a duty to help another, in case like this, a person has a duty not to hinder others who are trying to help.
FACTS
The plaintiff's father, Darrell Soldano was shot and killed at the Happy Jack Saloon. Soldano v. O’Daniels 141 Cal. App. 3d 443 Court of Appeal of California (1983). The defendant in this case owns and operates the Circle Inn, which is a restaurant directly across the street from Happy
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v. Cappier case in 1921. Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Cappier 66 Kan. 649 (1903). A train struck a man. Railroad employees saw the incident and did nothing to help him. The injured man had died by the time when the help arrived. The court said that railroad had no duty to help the struck man. At this time the law in USA clearly stated that bystanders need do …show more content…
In 1969 Poddar killed Tatiana Tarasoff. Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California 17 Ca. 3rd 425 Supreme Court of California (1976). A patient, Poddar, informed his psychologist regarding his intent to kill Tatiana Tarasoff. Psychologist did nothing to warn Tarasoff and she was killed by Poddar. Tarasoff’ s relatives sued University of California claiming that doctor had to warned Tatiana and had to arrange Poddar’ s confinement. In this case court made an exception and said that doctor and patient had a special relationship. This fact made a case different from the general bystander law. Court said that therapist under applicable professional standards had a duty to protect victim from a danger.
CONCLUSION Our case is not identical to other cases I mentioned above and this fact created the new exception in the bystander law. The court decided that the bartender owed a duty to Soldano to permit a call to the police or to place a call by himself. This is different than actually aid someone in