The Role of Primary Assumption of Risk in Civil Litigation in Minnesota

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1 Mitchell Hamline School of Law Mitchell Hamline Open Access Faculty Scholarship 2003 The Role of Primary Assumption of Risk in Civil Litigation in Minnesota Michael K. Steenson Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Publication Information 30 William Mitchell Law Review 115 (2003) Repository Citation Steenson, Michael K., "The Role of Primary Assumption of Risk in Civil Litigation in Minnesota" (2003). Faculty Scholarship. Paper This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Mitchell Hamline Open Access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Mitchell Hamline Open Access. For more information, please contact

2 The Role of Primary Assumption of Risk in Civil Litigation in Minnesota Abstract Assumption of risk has presented courts with considerable difficulty in defining its theoretical justification and its relationship to tort duty limitations and to the defense of contributory negligence. In Minnesota and elsewhere, assumption of risk has been applied inconsistently. Sometimes it seems to relate to the duty issue and sometimes it is linked to the defense of contributory negligence, but without a clear differentiation of which issue is involved. In Minnesota specifically, the Minnesota Supreme Court has acknowledged that inconsistency and the difficulty in applying the concept in cases spanning several decades. This article focuses on primary assumption of risk, which is the facet of assumption of risk that has created the most difficult problems, post-springrose. The primary problem in understanding primary assumption of risk is in determining its relationship to the duty issue in tort law. A secondary and dependent problem is in determining the appropriate relationship between judge and jury for purposes of applying primary assumption of risk principles. Keywords risk, Minnesota Law, Eighth Circuit, restatement of torts, apportionment of liability Disciplines Torts This article is available at Mitchell Hamline Open Access:

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