Also known as: imminent hazards · imminent danger
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An immediate danger of serious harm known to the master or a person with management duties. The master must exercise reasonable care to avert the threatened harm.
A danger that will not admit of delay and thereby permits a state to act without prior congressional consent.
An immediate danger of serious harm known to the master or a person with management duties. The master must exercise reasonable care to avert the threatened harm.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A danger that will not admit of delay and thereby permits a state to act without prior congressional consent.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Luis, a test driver at an auto plant, reports to his supervisor and plant manager that prototype brakes fail at high speed. Management orders him to continue high-speed runs anyway. Luis crashes and is injured. The employer faces liability because it knowingly kept Luis in a position of imminent hazard of serious harm.
School officials require students to salute the flag despite sincere religious objections. A student refuses and is expelled. The expulsion order is challenged as violating protected expression because the requirement creates an imminent hazard to individual conscience without sufficient justification.
A city condemns a strip of railroad land for a public street without paying compensation. The railroad challenges the taking. The action is invalid because it imposes an imminent hazard to the railroad's property rights without just compensation.
A city awards construction contracts with rigid racial preferences for minority firms. A non-minority contractor sues, claiming the program denies equal protection. The program is struck down because it creates an imminent hazard of unconstitutional racial classification without a compelling justification.
A car manufacturer sells vehicles with wheels that it knows can detach at highway speeds. A buyer is injured when a wheel fails. The manufacturer is liable because it placed the buyer in a position of imminent hazard by selling a product with a known dangerous defect.
An employer owes the duty once a person with management responsibilities knows that an employee acting within the scope of employment faces an immediate danger of serious harm. The employer must then exercise reasonable care to avert the threatened harm.
Supporting sources
Yes. Knowledge held by a supervisor or plant manager with management duties is attributed to the employer. Once that knowledge exists, the employer must act with reasonable care to remove the employee from the imminent hazard.
Supporting sources
The plaintiff must show that management knew of the specific, immediate risk of serious harm, that reasonable care required a protective response such as stopping the work or providing safeguards, and that the failure to respond caused the injury.
Supporting sources
State officials in State A learn that armed forces from a neighboring country are massing at the border and preparing to cross within hours. State A mobilizes its militia and engages the forces without first seeking congressional consent. The mobilization is justified because the incursion presents an imminent hazard that will not admit of delay.
…case of how much pressure on the suspect was permissible.[^maj-4] Among the criteria often taken into account were threats or imminent danger, e. g. , Payne v. Arkansas , 356 U. S. 560, physical deprivations such as lack of sleep or food, e. g. , Reck v. Pate , 367 U. S. 433, repeated or extended interrogation, e. g. ,…