Law Commons^™

Assumption Of Risk As A Defense To Negligence, Gregory S. Sergienko

Greg Sergienko

This article will revisit the history of assumption of risk in California and elsewhere and suggest that the traditional doctrine should be modified and revived, despite the contrary approach of the Restatement (Third) of Torts. In the first part of the article, I will describe the ambiguities in the statements of assumption of risk that existed before the adoption of comparative negligence. I will show that Knight v. Jewett, which rejected assumption of risk, misinterpreted Li v. Yellow Cab Co., in which the California Supreme Court adopted a comparative negligence rule. Moreover, even if the Knight case was defensible on …