Opinion ID: 1977162
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Duty Under Common Law

Text: Ms. Gourdine argues that it was foreseeable for Lilly that Ms. Crews, concededly suffering an adverse reaction to the medications, would cause injury and death to third persons while she was operating a motor vehicle, when she had not been adequately warned about the dangers that allegedly were associated with the specified medications, and that such foreseeability created a duty to Mr. Gourdine. With respect to determining whether a duty exists, we often have recourse to the definition in W. Page Keeton, et al., Prosser and Keeton on The Law of Torts § 53 (5th ed. 1984), which characterizes `duty' as `an obligation, to which the law will give recognition and effect, to conform to a particular standard of conduct toward another.' Patton, 381 Md. at 636-37, 851 A.2d at 571. See also Pendleton v. State, 398 Md. 447, 461, 921 A.2d 196, 204-05 (2007); Pharmacia & Upjohn, 388 Md. at 415, 879 A.2d at 1092; Dehn, 384 Md. at 619, 865 A.2d at 611; Horridge, 382 Md. at 182, 854 A.2d at 1239. At its core, the determination of whether a duty exists represents a policy question of whether the specific plaintiff is entitled to protection from the acts of the defendant. See Pendleton, 398 Md. at 461, 921 A.2d at 205; Rosenblatt v. Exxon, 335 Md. 58, 77, 642 A.2d 180, 189 (1994) (stating that ultimately, the determination of whether a duty should be imposed is made by weighing the various policy considerations and reaching a conclusion that the plaintiff's interests are, or are not, entitled to legal protection against the conduct of the defendant); Ashburn v. Anne Arundel County, 306 Md. 617, 627, 510 A.2d 1078, 1083 (1986), quoting Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts at Section 53 (commenting that duty is only an expression of the sum total of those considerations of policy which lead the law to say that the plaintiff is entitled to protection). We recently discussed the nature of duty and foreseeability in Patton, 381 Md. at 637, 851 A.2d at 571 (citations omitted), in which Judge Glenn T. Harrell, Jr., writing for this Court, stated: Where the failure to exercise due care creates risks of personal injury, the principal determinant of duty becomes foreseeability. The foreseeability test is simply intended to reflect current societal standards with respect to an acceptable nexus between the negligent act and the ensuing harm. In determining whether a duty exists, it is important to consider the policy reasons supporting a cause of action in negligence. The purpose is to discourage or encourage specific types of behavior by one party to the benefit of another party. While foreseeability is often considered among the most important of these factors, its existence alone does not suffice to establish a duty under Maryland law. See also Remsburg v. Montgomery, 376 Md. 568, 583, 831 A.2d 18, 26 (2003); Valentine v. On Target, Inc., 353 Md. 544, 551, 727 A.2d 947, 950 (1999) (noting that not all foreseeable harm gives rise to a duty; there are other factors to consider); Jacques v. First Nat'l Bank of Maryland, 307 Md. 527, 535, 515 A.2d 756, 760 (1986). As we clarified in Ashburn: [t]he fact that a result may be foreseeable does not itself impose a duty in negligence terms. This principle is apparent in the acceptance by most jurisdictions and by this Court of the general rule that there is no duty to control a third person's conduct so as to prevent personal harm to another, unless a special relationship exists either between the actor and the third person or between the actor and the person injured. 306 Md. at 628, 510 A.2d at 1083 (citations omitted). See also Scott v. Watson, 278 Md. 160, 166, 359 A.2d 548, 552 (1976) ([A] private person is under no special duty to protect another from criminal acts by a third person, in the absence of statutes, or of a special relationship.). [12] Duty requires a close or direct effect of the tortfeasor's conduct on the injured party. This close and direct effect has been acknowledged by Prosser and Keeton: The rule that you are to love your neighbor becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbor; and the lawyer's question, Who is my neighbor? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbor. Who, then, in law is my neighbor? The answer seems to be persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question. Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts at Section 53, quoting Donoghue v. Stevenson, 1 Q.B. 491 (1893) (emphasis added). In Dehn, 384 Md. at 626, 865 A.2d at 615, we recently had occasion to describe the importance of the close and direct connection between conduct and the injury, again quoting Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts at Section 41 (emphasis added): As a practical matter, legal responsibility must be limited to those causes which are so closely connected with the result and of such significance that the law is justified in imposing liability. Some boundary must be set to liability for the consequences of any act, upon the basis of some social idea of justice or policy. This limitation is to some extent associated with the nature and degree of the connection in fact between the defendant's acts and the events of which the plaintiff complains. Often to greater extent, however, the legal limitation on the scope of liability is associated with policy-with our more or less inadequately expressed ideas of what justice demands.... In that case, we considered whether a physician owed a duty to a patient's wife, who became pregnant following the patient's failed vasectomy, when the wife was not the doctor's patient and did not have any contact with the doctor. The wife asserted that a duty was owed by the physician to the wife because it was foreseeable that negligence in the execution and postsurgical follow-up of her husband's vasectomy would result in her pregnancy. We stated that foreseeability alone was not sufficient to establish a duty, as well as the fact that the wife could not have relied on the doctor's advice and instructions to her husband because the doctor had not performed the vasectomy or provided post-operative care and the doctor had never met the wife prior to trial. We concluded that under the circumstances of the case, the doctor did not owe a duty of care to the wife: A duty of care does not accrue purely by virtue of the marital status of the patient alone; some greater relational nexus between doctor and patient's spouse must be established, if it can be established at all, and here it was not. A duty of care to a non-patient is not one which Maryland law is prepared to recognize under these circumstances. The imposition of a common law duty upon Dr. Edgecombe to the wife under these circumstances could expand traditional tort concepts beyond manageable bounds. The rationale for extending the duty would apply to all potential sexual partners and expand the universe of potential plaintiffs.... Based on these rationales alone, a family practitioner who ostensibly provides after-care following a sterilization procedure performed by another physician would owe a duty of care not just to the patient who underwent the operation but every sexual partner the patient encounters after the operation  a possibility the law does not countenance. Id. at 626-27, 865 A.2d at 615. In Pharmacia & Upjohn, 388 Md. at 407, 879 A.2d at 1088, we further confirmed the importance of a close and direct connection between the tortious act and effect. In Pharmacia & Upjohn, a husband, who became infected with HIV-2 while handling the virus in the course of his employment in a research laboratory, infected his wife after the two engaged in unprotected marital relations. The husband's employer had conducted tests to detect the existence of HIV -1, but did not inform the husband that a positive initial test result, followed by a subsequent negative, could indicate the existence of HIV-2. The wife argued that because it was foreseeable that she would contract the disease from her husband, the employer owed her a duty to inform her husband of the meaning of laboratory test results for his health and the implications for his future conduct. We concluded that the employer had no duty to the wife because Ms. Doe had no relationship with Pharmacia. There is no assertion in the complaint that she was ever an employee of Pharmacia, that she had ever been tested for HIV or any other disease by Pharmacia, or that she had ever had any contact with Pharmacia. Id. at 420, 879 A.2d at 1095. We also explained that, Doe's proposed duty of care to her would create an expansive new duty to an indeterminate class of people. This Court has resisted the establishment of duties of care to indeterminate classes of people. The concern with recognizing a duty that would encompass an indeterminate class of people is that a person ordinarily cannot foresee liability to a boundless category of people. Additionally, we have noted that the imposition of a duty to an indeterminate class would make tort law unmanageable. The imposition of a duty of care in this case would create an indeterminate class of potential plaintiffs. Doe portrays her proposed duty as limited to spouses. She claims that it was foreseeable that she would contract HIV while engaging in unprotected sex with her husband because it is foreseeable that a husband and wife will engage in sexual relations. Doe does not offer any legitimate reason to support a distinction between married plaintiffs and other plaintiffs. The rationale for imposing a duty of care to Ms. Doe could apply to all sexual partners of employees. The potential class to whom Pharmacia would owe a duty under Doe's theory is even greater than all sexual partners of its employees. It includes any person who could have contracted HIV-2 from the employee by any means. The law does not countenance the imposition of such a broad and indeterminate duty of care. Id. at 420-21, 879 A.2d at 1095-96 (citations omitted). See also Valentine, 353 Md. at 555-56, 727 A.2d at 952 (concluding that a gun dealer owed no duty of care to the public to exercise reasonable care in the display and sale of handguns to prevent the theft and the illegal use of the handguns by others against third parties and noting that a duty may exist to the public at large without any evidence of a relationship between the parties, is simply too foreign to our well-established jurisprudence to sufficiently advocate a different result than the one we have reached and that [t]he class of persons to whom a duty would be owed under these bare facts would encompass an indeterminate class of people); Village of Cross Keys, Inc. v. United States Gypsum Co., 315 Md. 741, 760, 556 A.2d 1126, 1135 (1989) (stating that no duty was owed between designer of brick veneer and steel-stud curtain wall system and condominium developer when the record revealed that the condominium developer did not follow the design offered; that duty should extend to those who seek to challenge a system they have used, and not to those who do not). In the case sub judice, there was no direct connection between Lilly's warnings, or the alleged lack thereof, and Mr. Gourdine's injury. In fact, there was no contact between Lilly and Mr. Gourdine whatsoever. To impose the requested duty from Lilly to Mr. Gourdine would expand traditional tort concepts beyond manageable bounds, because such duty could apply to all individuals who could have been affected by Mr. Crews after her ingestion of the drugs. Essentially, Lilly would owe a duty to the world, an indeterminate class of people, for which we have resisted the establishment of duties of care. Pharmacia & Upjohn, 388 Md. at 407, 879 A.2d at 1088. See also Dehn, 384 Md. at 627, 865 A.2d at 615 (The imposition of a common law duty upon Dr. Edgecombe to the wife under these circumstances could expand traditional tort concepts beyond manageable bounds.); Valentine, 353 Md. at 553, 727 A.2d at 951 (One cannot be expected to owe a duty to the world at large to protect it against the actions of third parties, which is why the common law distinguishes different types of relationships when determining if a duty exists. The class of persons to whom a duty would be owed under these bare facts would encompass an indeterminate class of people, known and unknown.); Village of Cross Keys, 315 Md. at 744-45, 556 A.2d at 1127 (stating that the claimed duty generates the specter of `liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class,' a liability that ... continues to concern courts today). Ms. Gourdine asserts, nevertheless, that Lilly's liability is analogous to a car manufacturer's liability for injuries to an innocent bystander resulting from a product defect, citing Valk Manufacturing, 74 Md. App. at 304, 537 A.2d at 622, rev'd on other grounds sub nom, Montgomery County v. Valk Manufacturing Co., 317 Md. 185, 562 A.2d 1246 (1989). In Valk Manufacturing, Dr. Rangaswamy died as a result of an automobile accident in which he was struck by a dump truck on which a snow plow hitch arm protruded unsafely. The doctor's widow and minor child filed suit against the manufacturer of the snowplow hitch alleging negligence and strict liability for defective design. A jury awarded the plaintiff's $2,500,000 on the strict liability count, and our intermediate appellate court affirmed the award. Addressing whether the plaintiffs could recover under the theory of strict liability in tort as a bystander, the Court of Special Appeals noted that [m]ost jurisdictions, when called upon to do so, have extended the strict liability doctrine to provide relief for bystanders ... `to put the strict liability on the same footing as negligence, as to all foreseeable injuries.' Id. at 322, 537 A.2d at 631, quoting Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts at Section 100. As a result, the intermediate appellate court was persuaded that the all-important concept of legal duty should allow recovery for strict liability to a third-party bystander. Id. at 322, 537 A.2d at 631. In Valk Manufacturing, however, the defective product was directly involved in the accident and caused the decedent's injury. See also Kelley v. R.G. Industries, Inc., 304 Md. 124, 158, 497 A.2d 1143, 1160 (1985) (Saturday Night Special case; Finally, once the trier of facts determines that a handgun is a Saturday Night Special, then liability may be imposed against a manufacturer or anyone else in the marketing chain, including the retailer. Liability may only be imposed, however, when the plaintiff or plaintiff's decedent suffers injury or death because he is shot with the Saturday Night Special.). Here, however, there was no direct connection between the drugs and accompanying warnings and the decedent. Ms. Gourdine, however, also attempts to draw support from cases from other jurisdictions in which she asserts the courts have held that a doctor's duty to warn his or her patient of the risks associated with medication prescribed extends to non-patients who are foreseeably at risk. E.g., Taylor v. Smith, 892 So.2d 887 (Ala.2004) (director of outpatient methadone-treatment center owed duty of due care to a non-patient motorist who was injured in an automobile accident with the director's patient); McKenzie v. Hawai'i Permanente Medical Group, 98 Hawai'i 296, 47 P.3d 1209 (2002) (physician owed duty to non-patient third party to warn patient that medication may affect patient's driving abilities); Kaiser v. Suburban Transportation System, 398 P.2d 14, modified, 65 Wash.2d 461, 401 P.2d 350 (1965) (doctor owed duty to non-patient bus passenger to warn his patient, a bus driver, of the potential side effect of drowsiness in his medication). We have not, however, historically embraced the belief that duty should be defined mainly with regard to foreseeability, without regard to the size of the group to which the duty would be owed, which the Courts in Alabama, Hawai'i and Washington have. See Havard v. Palmer & Baker Engineers, Inc., 293 Ala. 301, 302 So.2d 228, 232 (1974) (concluding that engineering firm under a contract with the City of Mobile to inspect a tunnel owed a duty to third party member[s] of the public using the tunnel to reasonably apprise the City of Mobile of the condition of the fire-fighting equipment located in the [t]unnel; The ultimate test of the existence of a duty to use due care is found in the foreseeability that harm may result if care is not exercised.), overruled on other grounds, Ex parte Insurance Co. of North America, 523 So.2d 1064 (Ala.1988); Taylor-Rice v. State, 91 Hawai'i 60, 979 P.2d 1086, 1097 (1999) (passenger in car driven by intoxicated individual was injured when car struck guardrail and utility pole; iterating that State owed duty to passenger because the court has repeatedly recognized a duty owed by all persons to refrain from taking actions that might foreseeably cause harm to others); Berglund v. Spokane County, 4 Wash.2d 309, 103 P.2d 355, 359 (1940) (determining that Spokane County owed duty to child who was struck by an automobile while walking on a county bridge; Inherent in this definition [of duty] is the principle that the care required in a given instance must be commensurate with the risk of harm, or danger, to which others might be exposed by one's conduct.). Rather, in Dehn, 384 Md. at 621-22, 865 A.2d at 612, we emphasized that ordinarily a physician does not owe a duty of care to non-patients and noted that although the common law does not foreclose the possibility of imposing a duty of care in the absence of a doctor-patient relationship to a third party who never received treatment from the doctor, it will not do so except under extraordinary circumstances and that [t]he imposition of a common law duty upon Dr. Edgecombe to the wife under these circumstances could expand traditional tort concepts beyond manageable bounds. See also e.g. Gilhuly v. Dockery, 273 Ga.App. 418, 615 S.E.2d 237, 239 (2005) (patient who was involved in a car accident in which sons were injured filed suit on their behalf based on physician's alleged failure to warn patient not to drive after taking certain medications; the Court of Appeals of Georgia rejected the claims on behalf of the sons because [t]o expand a doctor's duty to his patient to generally include members of the public at large in a case such as this one would be contrary to Georgia public policy); Lester ex rel. Mavrogenis v. Hall, 126 N.M. 404, 970 P.2d 590, 597 (1998) (holding that physician owed no duty non-patient injured in automobile accident with patient because the consequences of placing a legal duty on physicians to warn may subject them to substantial liability even though their warnings may not be effective to eliminate the risk in many cases); Rebollal v. Payne, 145 A.D.2d 617, 618, 536 N.Y.S.2d 147 (N.Y.App.Div.1988) (There is no duty on the part of the operator of a methadone clinic to control the travel activities of a methadone patient giving rise to liability for accidents to a third party such as plaintiff's decedent.); Praesel v. Johnson, 967 S.W.2d 391, 398 (Tex.1998) (stating that treating physicians do not owe a duty to third parties to warn epileptic patients not to drive, for purposes of negligence claims against physicians for failure to warn if patient has accident and injures third party during seizure; Balancing both the need for and the effectiveness of a warning to a patient who already knows that he or she suffers from seizures against the burden of liability to third parties, we conclude that the benefit of warning an epileptic not to drive is incremental but that the consequences of imposing a duty are great.). Our conclusion that Lilly did not owe a duty to Mr. Gourdine also is buttressed by persuasive authority utilizing a duty analysis similar to ours, that of Kirk v. Michael Reese Hospital & Medical Center, 117 Ill.2d 507, 111 Ill.Dec. 944, 513 N.E.2d 387 (1987). In Kirk, a driver, apparently because of undisclosed side effects of certain prescription drugs, lost control of his vehicle and collided with a tree, injuring a passenger. The passenger brought an action against the drug manufacturers, and others, alleging failure to warn based in negligence and strict liability. Before the Supreme Court of Illinois, the passenger asserted that his injuries were foreseeable and that while the class of persons to whom the warning is required to be given may be very limited, the class of persons to whom the duty is owed includes the public generally. Kirk, 513 N.E.2d at 392. The court rejected this argument, determining that foreseeability ... is not intended to bring within the scope of the defendant's liability every injury that might possibly occur and that the manufacturer of the prescription drug owed no duty to a nonuser. Id. at 392-93. We agree. Therefore, although there may be circumstances where foreseeability alone may give rise to liability to a third party because of policy reasons, this is not the case. We conclude that Lilly did not owe a duty to Mr. Gourdine.