Opinion ID: 2338374
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: MTA's Duty to Render Aid to Mr. Todd

Text: For an appropriate resolution to this case, we also must look beyond the rule in Tall. Mr. Todd argues that MTA's duty to take action arose, not only when the attack became foreseeable, but also upon learning that the attack on Mr. Todd was underway. In other words, Mr. Todd contends that Mr. Rolle had a duty to provide aid to Mr. Todd after learning that the attack had commenced. We agree. Although this Court has not before confronted the issue of a common carrier's duty to aid a passenger under attack, we addressed an analogous scenario in Southland Corp. v. Griffith, 332 Md. 704, 633 A.2d 84 (1993). In Southland, we reversed summary judgment for the owner of a convenience store whose customer, Griffith, was assaulted by a group of teenagers in the store's parking lot. Id. at 720, 633 A.2d at 92. While the attack was ongoing, Griffith's son notified the store clerk of the altercation and asked her to telephone the police. Id. at 709-10, 633 A.2d at 86. Evidence showed that the clerk failed to promptly comply with the son's request, prolonging the assault and causing injury to Griffith. Id. In analyzing whether the store owner had a duty to aid a customer in peril, we recognized as a general principle that: Absent statutes to the contrary, or the existence of a legally cognizable special relationship, the law is clear that a person has no legal duty to come to the aid of another in distress, even if the aid can be provided at no risk or cost to the other person. Id. at 716, 633 A.2d at 90 (citing Lamb v. Hopkins, 303 Md. 236, 242, 492 A.2d 1297, 1300 (1985)). We also observed that there are a number of `special relationship' exceptions to this general common law rule, which give rise to a duty to render aid. Southland, 332 Md. at 717, 633 A.2d at 90. Among these relationships, we found, are shopkeeper to business visitor and common carrier to passenger. Expressly adopting Section 314A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965), we embraced the following proposition: [A]n employee of a business has a legal duty to take affirmative action for the aid or protection of a business invitee who is in danger while on the business's premises, provided that the employee has knowledge of the injured invitee and the employee is not in the path of danger. Southland, 332 Md. at 719, 633 A.2d at 91. We then applied this rule to the facts in Southland and held that the convenience store clerk owed [Griffith] a legal duty to aid (call the police) when he requested assistance. Id. at 720, 633 A.2d at 91. The business owner's duty to aid its customers applies with equal force to common carriers in relation to their passengers. Indeed, Section 314A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, from which this Court derived the rule in Southland, includes the common carrier to passenger relationship among the special relationships that give rise to a duty to aid. [4] Thus, an employee of a common carrier has a legal duty to take affirmative action for the aid or protection of a passenger who is in danger, provided that the employee has knowledge of the injured passenger and the employee is not in the path of danger. Viewing the evidence in the present case favorably to Mr. Todd, a jury could reasonably find that Mr. Rolle heard a passenger yell, Bus driver, stop the bus. They are beating up this man back here. Stop the bus. A jury also could reasonably find from this evidence that Mr. Rolle acquired knowledge that a passenger was being injured. Such a finding, therefore, would establish that Mr. Rolle had a duty to take affirmative action to aid Mr. Todd.