Opinion ID: 1753129
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Similarity to Contributory Negligence

Text: As early as 1906, a distinguished commentator expressed the view that it was essential that contributory negligence and assumption of risk should be kept quite distinct. Bohlen, supra, 20. Harv. L.Rev. at 18. But at an even earlier date, there were indications that Professor Bohlen's hopes in this regard were in vain. In Eckert v. Long Island R.R., 43 N.Y. 502, 3 Am.Rep. 721 (1871), plaintiffs sued the railroad company after their decedent was killed in the process of removing a small child from the path of an oncoming train. The New York Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, but there were two dissenting opinions. One dissent urged that the plaintiff should not recover on the ground that he was contributorily negligent; the other dissenting opinion posited that the plaintiff should not recover because he had assumed the risk. Neither of the dissenting opinions discussed the other, nor attempted to distinguish between the two defenses. Nonetheless, other courts insisted that there was a distinction between the two doctrines. Contributory negligence was described as the inadvertent or unintentional failure of the plaintiff to exercise due care for his own safety. See James, Contributory Negligence, 62 Yale L.J. 691, 723 (1953). The defense called for an objective inquiry into whether the plaintiff's conduct fell below the standard required of a reasonable man of ordinary prudence under the circumstances. W. Prosser & J. Wade, Cases and Materials on Torts, supra at 505 n. 6. Assumption of the risk, on the other hand, was purportedly distinguishable from contributory negligence because it was governed by a subjective test, which required an inquiry into whether the plaintiff actually knew of the risk and voluntarily confronted the danger. See, e.g., Bartlett v. Gregg, 77 S.D. 406, 92 N.W.2d 654 (1958); Landrum v. Roddy, 143 Neb. 934, 12 N.W.2d 82 (1943). See also Cincinnati, N.O. & T.P.R. Co. v. Thompson, 236 F. 1, 9 (6th Cir.1916) (Knowledge is the watchword of assumption of risk.). This distinction has been preserved in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which explains the theory of assumption of risk as follows: The basis of assumption of risk is the plaintiff's consent to accept the risk and look out for himself. Therefore, he will not be found, in the absence of an express agreement which is clearly so to be construed, to assume any risk unless he has knowledge of its existence. This means that he must not only be aware of the facts which create the danger, but must also appreciate the danger itself and the nature, character and extent which make it unreasonable. Thus the condition of premises upon which he may enter may be quite apparent to him, but the danger arising from the condition may be neither known nor apparent, or if known or apparent at all, it may appear to him to be so slight as to be negligible. In such a case the plaintiff does not assume the risk. His failure to exercise due care either to discover or understand the danger is not properly a matter of assumption of risk, but of the defense of contributory negligence. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 496, comment (b) (emphasis added). However, the theoretical distinctions between the two defenses are often most difficult to maintain in practice. A conceptual difficulty arises from the fact that a plaintiff who knowingly and voluntarily encounters an unreasonable risk of injury may usually be described as one whose conduct has fallen below the standard of due care which would be exercised by a reasonable man under similar circumstances. See Meistrich v. Casino Arena Attractions, Inc., 31 N.J. 44, 55, 196 A.2d 90, 96 (1959) (describing a plaintiff's decision to incur a known risk as failure to use the care of a reasonably prudent man under all of the circumstances.); see also Lowndes, Contributory Negligence, 22 Geo.L.J. 674, 680 (1934) (A voluntary and unreasonable assumption of risk affords a defense ... not because the plaintiff has consented to the injury, but because he has acted imprudently. ) (emphasis added); V. Schwartz, Comparative Negligence, supra at 155 (Often when a plaintiff assumes a risk, he does not act as a reasonable man and therefore he is also contributorily negligent.) Accordingly, the two defenses often overlap, and [t]he vast majority of assumption of risk cases involve nothing more than a particular form of plaintiff negligence. Robertson, Ruminations on Comparative Fault, Duty-Risk Analysis, Affirmative Defenses, and Defensive Doctrines in Negligence and Strict Liability Litigation in Louisiana, 44 La.L.Rev. 1341, 1372 (1984).