Law Commons^™

Elimination Of The Distinctions Between Trespassers, Licensees, And Invitees - Landowner Has A Duty Of Reasonable Care To Foreseeable Entrants., Lawrence Likar

St. Mary's Law Journal

A pure negligence approach to bystander recovery imposes an undue burden upon a merely negligent defendant. Third parties, who suffer emotional distress after witnessing someone suffer an injury, lack standing to sue if they themselves suffered no physical injury. Under a pure negligence approach, however, bystanders now have a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. Nonetheless, this method of recovery exceeds the scope of the general principles of negligence law. For instance, a secondary reaction to a specific traumatic stimulus is not foreseeable and is heavily dependent upon an individual's prior mental conditioning. The law requires more than mere …