Oregon Restates Elements Of Ordinary Negligence In Attempted Suicide Case

In many states, an ordinary negligence cause of action requires a plaintiff to prove four elements:

• The defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff
• The defendant breached that duty
• The plaintiff suffered an injury
• Proof that defendant's breach caused the injury.

In 1970, Oregon began trying to move away from this expression of negligence, which one decision termed a "verbal crutch." In Scott v. Kesselring, the Oregon Supreme Court continued this evolution.

Background

Factually, the defendant had caused a rear-end collision on wet roads while using a hand-held cell phone; she admitted "liability" and moved to exclude evidence of her cell phone use. The plaintiff argued such use was relevant to assessing whether plaintiff's subsequent suicide attempt was a reasonably foreseeable result of using a hand-held cell phone while driving. The trial court allowed the evidence at trial, a judgment was entered and the defendant appealed.