Also known as: imminent danger
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct, a condition, or an object reasonably certain to place life and limb in peril.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
State officials learn that an armed force is massing just across the border and will reach populated areas within hours. The governor orders state troops to intercept the incursion without first seeking congressional consent. The imminent danger finding supplies the constitutional justification for unilateral state military action.
Alex, a NorthTrail driver, radios that the mountain pass is iced over and trucks ahead have slid off the road. Terminal manager Rivera, aware of the report, nevertheless directs Alex to continue the run. The known, immediate peril to Alex while on duty triggers the employer's duty to exercise reasonable care to avert the threatened harm.
Buick sells an automobile whose wheel collapses because of a latent manufacturing defect. The buyer is injured when the car overturns. Because the defect renders the vehicle imminently dangerous to life if negligently made, the manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate user despite the absence of privity.
Chicago Pneumatic supplies pneumatic tools whose vibration levels exceed safe limits. Workers using the tools suffer permanent nerve damage. The tools' capacity to cause serious injury when used as intended supports treating them as imminently dangerous and allows recovery without privity.
A Memphis officer shoots a fleeing burglary suspect who poses no threat of death or serious injury. The use of deadly force against a non-dangerous felon is held unconstitutional because the suspect's conduct does not create an imminent danger justifying lethal response.
Military aircraft fly repeatedly at low altitude directly over Causby's farm, frightening the chickens so severely that production collapses. The continuous overflights constitute an immediate physical invasion that destroys the property's utility and supports a taking claim.
The duty arises once management learns that an employee acting within the scope of employment faces imminent danger of serious harm. At that point the employer must exercise reasonable care to avert the threatened injury.
No. When a product is imminently dangerous if negligently made, the manufacturer owes a duty of care to foreseeable users regardless of contractual privity.
Article I, Section 10 permits a state to engage in war without congressional consent when it faces imminent danger that will not admit of delay.
…extended the rule of Thomas v. Winchester . If so, this court is committed to the extension. The defendant argues that things imminently dangerous to life are poisons, explosives, deadly weapons — things whose normal function it is to injure or destroy. But whatever the rule in Thomas v. Winchester may once have been, it has no…