Opinion ID: 2410903
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: status in tennessee

Text: After reviewing the wealth of authorities from other jurisdictions, as well as the writings of numerous legal commentators on the subject, we join the vast majority of jurisdictions by concluding that the doctrine of implied assumption of risk no longer operates as a complete bar to recovery in Tennessee. It would be ironic indeed if, after abolishing the all-or-nothing proposition of contributory negligence in McIntyre , we were to reinstate it here using the vehicle of assumption of risk. However valid at the time, the policy of insulating business from human overhead, from which assumption of risk developed, now runs directly counter to modern social policy that is typified by the almost universal enactment of workmen's compensation legislation. [30] We agree with those states that have abandoned all categories of implied assumption of risk, as well as the traditional assumption of risk terminology, in the wake of judicial or statutory adoption of a scheme of comparative fault. The types of issues raised by implied assumption of risk are readily susceptible to analysis in terms of the common-law concept of duty and the principles of comparative negligence law. Under Tennessee law, no claim for negligence can succeed in the absence of any one of the following elements: (1) a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff; (2) conduct falling below the applicable standard of care amounting to a breach of that duty; (3) an injury or loss; (4) causation in fact; and (5) proximate, or legal cause. Bradshaw v. Daniel, 854 S.W.2d 865, 869 (Tenn. 1993); McClenahan v. Cooley, 806 S.W.2d 767, 774 (Tenn. 1991). Because duty is an element of the plaintiff's prima facie case, the doctrine of primary implied assumption of risk, as an alternate expression of the concept of duty, would serve no productive purpose; indeed it would only confuse and convolute the issues. For that reason, we decline to adopt that aspect of the thoughtful opinion of the Court of Appeals. While we agree that those situations described by commentators as involving the concept of primary implied assumption of risk will preclude recovery under a scheme of comparative fault, the same result will be obtained, without any unnecessary confusion, if Tennessee courts use the common-law concept of duty to analyze the issues. Moreover, we do not consider it necessary or desirable to retain the doctrine of secondary implied assumption of risk as a separate defense. Rather, the reasonableness of a party's conduct in confronting a risk should be determined under the principles of comparative fault. Attention should be focused on whether a reasonably prudent person in the exercise of due care knew of the risk, or should have known of it, and thereafter confronted the risk; and whether such a person would have behaved in the manner in which the plaintiff acted in light of all the surrounding circumstances, including the confronted risk. [31] The issues formerly amenable to assumption of risk analysis will inevitably arise in future negligence cases. We believe, however, that confusion and complications can be avoided if the resolution of those issues proceeds in accordance with principles of general negligence law and principles of comparative fault analysis. We also believe that the contractually-oriented principle of express assumption of risk is unaffected by our shift from contributory negligence to comparative fault. In exercising, perhaps, an over abundance of caution, some jurisdictions have required that the term express assumption of risk be banished from the range of acceptable legal terms of art. Although we have concluded that implied assumption of risk doctrine and terminology should no longer be used, we find it unnecessary to eliminate the term express assumption of risk, primarily because it has never been used to refer to various, distinct, and overlapping legal concepts.