First Principles of Business Law

4. 3. Recognised duty situations or relationships

4.3.9. A failure to act that causes harm

Read the facts below and then answer the question.

A lives on a busy street. One afternoon she notices some small children playing with a ball on the sidewalk. She sees that quite often the ball bounces onto the road and, when it does so, the children chase after it without looking out for vehicles. The children are not being supervised but A decides that the situation is none of her business. Some time later, one of the children, B, again chases the ball onto the street and is seriously injured by a passing car driven by C who has no time to avoid colliding with the child.

D, B's parent, argues that since she noticed the danger, A owed a duty of care to the children and was obliged to take such steps as were necessary to prevent the foreseeable harm from occurring.  Is D correct?