Also known as: unreasonable risks of harm · unreasonable risk
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A condition or course of conduct that a reasonable person would recognize as creating a foreseeable likelihood of physical injury to others. The standard supplies the benchmark for determining when a duty of care arises or when a preexisting duty has been breached.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Lydia owns a beachfront building and leases the ground floor to Oceanview Hospitality for a public bar. Before the lease she steps on a spongy deck board near the railing but neither investigates nor repairs it. Oceanview opens to patrons two weeks later. Carlos steps on the board, which snaps and causes him serious injury.
During a crowded lunch service at Sun Kitchen, a line cook bumps a tray of hot soup into delivery worker Sara while both reach for the same counter space. The contact itself is not intended to offend. Sara suffers only momentary discomfort and no lasting injury.
Depot Holdings leases an old bus depot with a known pothole in the loading apron to MetroCoach Lines for public terminal use. The lease requires Depot to keep the apron in repair. Depot never fills the pothole. Passenger Ortiz falls into it on opening day and is seriously injured.
Teresa manages Sun Kitchen and knows the walk-in cooler door occasionally sticks. She tells staff to bang on the wall rather than posting warnings or ordering repairs. Delivery worker Sara enters during the lunch rush, becomes trapped, and is later exposed to a spreading grease fire.
Depot Holdings transfers possession of a bus terminal containing a deep pothole in the loading apron to MetroCoach. Depot realizes the uneven surface will endanger passengers outside the building. Ortiz falls into the pothole on the first day the terminal opens to the public.
Teresa directs staff to stack trays near the cooler entrance during the lunch rush. Sara steps inside to retrieve an order. The door sticks and holds her for several minutes until another worker frees her. Sara suffers no physical injury from the brief confinement.
Negligence is defined as conduct falling below the standard established for protection against unreasonable risk of harm. It expressly excludes conduct that recklessly disregards an interest of others.
Supporting sources
A landlord who conceals or fails to disclose a condition involving unreasonable risk of physical harm is subject to liability if the tenant neither knows nor has reason to know of the condition or risk, and the landlord knows or has reason to know of both and expects the tenant will not discover them.
…section 321, which provides that "If the actor does an act, and subsequently realizes or should realize that it has created an unreasonable risk of causing physical harm to another, he is under a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent the risk from taking effect." (See Hartzler v. City of San Jose, supra, 46 Cal. App.3d 6,…
…903 (1985). The Court of Appeals held that damage solely to a defective product is actionable in tort if the defect creates an
…human life or for a use which is of substantial importance in preventing impairment of human health," or "presents a potential unreasonable risk
…The Act classifies medical devices in three categories based on the risk that they pose to the public. Devices that present no
…136, 96 A.2d 303 (1953); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 283 (1964). A person is generally negligent for exposing another to an unreasonable risk of harm
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A landlord who contracts to keep the leased property in repair is subject to liability for physical harm caused by disrepair that creates an unreasonable risk to persons on the property when the landlord fails to exercise reasonable care to perform the contract.
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A landlord who transfers possession in a condition that involves unreasonable risk of physical harm to persons outside the property is subject to the same liability for harm subsequently caused to them as if the landlord had remained in possession.
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An act not done with intent to cause harmful or offensive contact does not make the actor liable for a mere offensive contact even though the act involves an unreasonable risk of inflicting it.
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