Breach of Duty

Example

John was driving his car down the road. Sarah didn’t notice his car because she was tuning her radio. Sarah hit John’s car, causing him injuries. Sarah breached her duty of care to John by not paying attention while driving. Sarah is therefore responsible for John’s injuries.

Case Examples

• Element of a negligence claim: Breach of duty is an element of a negligence claim. It cannot be considered a separate tort. See Kennedy v. Jackson Cnty ., Arkansas, No. 3:24-CV-00180-JM-JJV, 2024 WL 4941473, at *1 (E.D. Ark. Nov. 21, 2024), report and recommendation adopted, No. 3:24-CV-00180-JM-JJV, 2024 WL 4933310 (E.D. Ark. Dec. 2, 2024). In Kennedy, an inmate brought a negligence tort claim against the prison for failing to treat his medical and dental needs properly. However, he asserted breach of duty as a separate claim. Id . The Court deemed this improper as breach of duty must be proven as an element of a tort, not as an individual claim. Id .
• A defendant’s breach of duty must be the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries to be actionable. In Out of Chaos, Ltd. v. AON Corp ., 15 F. App'x 137, 144 (4th Cir. 2001), a court found that an insurance company’s alleged failure to process a customer’s claim did not cause the customer harm, as the customer would have pursued the same course of action even if they did not have insurance. Therefore, the insurance company could not be held liable for the customer’s damages. Id .
• Standard of care: In medical malpractice cases, a doctor’s breach of duty is measured by what other doctors in the same field with the same expertise would have done. This standard must be established by an expert witness who must cite a specific guideline used in the field. In Conn v. United States, 880 F. Supp. 2d 741, 747 (S.D. Miss. 2012), the Government won a summary judgment motion because the plaintiff’s expert witness failed to name a specific accepted standard that the VA had breached in the plaintiff’s case. Therefore, the plaintiff was unable to establish a breach of duty in the case. Id .