Facts
- Mary Zelenko became ill while shopping in Gimbel Brothers’ department store.
- Store personnel took her to the store’s infirmary.
- The administrator of her estate alleged the store kept her in the infirmary for about six hours without medical attention.
- The complaint further alleged the store isolated her from public view and from others who might have summoned an ambulance or otherwise provided assistance.
- Mary Zelenko later died, and her estate brought a negligence-based wrongful death action.
Issues
- Whether a business that had no initial duty to provide medical aid to a customer can incur a duty by voluntarily undertaking to assist.
- Whether allegations that the defendant took charge of the plaintiff’s decedent, isolated her from outside help, and then failed to provide reasonable care state a claim for negligence.
Decision
- The court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.
- It assumed for pleading purposes that the store had no original legal duty to rescue or treat the customer.
- It held that once the store undertook to render aid and took control of the situation, it had a duty to exercise reasonable care in carrying out that undertaking.
- The allegations of prolonged confinement without care and of preventing others from providing aid were sufficient to allow the negligence claim to proceed.
Legal Principles
- Absent a duty, mere inaction is not negligence.
- A duty to use reasonable care may arise when a defendant voluntarily undertakes to assist another, even if the defendant had no obligation to begin assisting.
- When a defendant’s undertaking includes taking charge of the person needing help, isolating the person, or cutting off other sources of assistance, a failure to act with reasonable care in the undertaking can be actionable negligence.
Conclusion
A negligence complaint is legally sufficient where a store allegedly took charge of an ill customer, isolated her from potential outside assistance, and then failed to use reasonable care in providing aid; a voluntary undertaking can create a duty even when no initial duty to rescue existed.