Duty of Care
Definition: Duty of care is the legal obligation to act with reasonable caution toward others who could foreseeably be harmed by your conduct. It is the first element of a Texas negligence claim, and whether a duty exists is a question of law for the judge.
Also called: legal duty, standard of care
What duty of care means in Texas
A duty of care is the legal obligation one person owes another to act with reasonable caution. Without a duty, there is no negligence, no matter how badly someone was hurt. In Texas, the existence of a duty is a question of law, which means the judge decides it, not the jury.
The Texas Supreme Court set out the test in Greater Houston Transportation Co. v. Phillips. Courts weigh the risk, foreseeability, and likelihood of injury against the social usefulness of the conduct, the burden of guarding against the injury, and the consequences of placing that burden on the defendant. Foreseeability carries the most weight.
How it works in practice
In most injury cases the duty is obvious and nobody fights about it. Every driver owes every other person on the road a duty to drive carefully, and Chapter 545 of the Transportation Code spells out what that means: obey signals, keep a safe following distance, yield when required, and signal before turning. A violation of one of those rules is strong evidence that the duty was breached.
Duty becomes the real battleground in less ordinary cases. Whether a bar owes a duty to a person injured by a drunk patron, whether an apartment complex owes a duty to protect tenants from a criminal, and whether an employer owes a duty to the public when an off-duty employee causes a crash are all questions the judge decides before a jury ever hears about the injuries.
Why it matters in your case
If the defendant convinces the judge that no duty existed, the case ends on summary judgment. That is why identifying every party who owed a duty, and the source of that duty, is early work in any injury case.
Example
Priya is crossing Congress Avenue in a marked crosswalk when Tom, turning left, strikes her. Under Transportation Code § 552.003, a driver must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk when the signal permits the pedestrian to cross. Tom owed Priya that duty. The judge will find a duty existed, and the case moves to breach and damages.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides whether a duty of care exists in a Texas lawsuit?
The judge. Texas treats the existence of a duty as a question of law, so it is decided by the court, often on a motion for summary judgment. The jury then decides the factual questions: whether the duty was breached, whether the breach caused the injury, and how much the damages are.
Does a business owe a duty of care to customers in Texas?
Yes. A business that opens its doors to the public owes invitees a duty to use ordinary care to keep the premises reasonably safe, including a duty to inspect for and fix or warn about dangerous conditions it knows about or should know about. The scope of that duty is the heart of a premises liability claim.
Does breaking a traffic law automatically prove a breach of duty?
Often, but not always. Violating a Transportation Code rule can be negligence per se, which means the violation itself establishes the breach. Texas courts still ask whether the statute was meant to protect the class of people injured and whether an excuse applies, such as an emergency not of the driver's own making.
Cite or link to this definition
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Citation
"Duty of Care." Texas Legal Glossary, SMB Law, PC, law-smb.com/legal-glossary/duty-of-care/. Updated October 2026.Link HTML
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This entry explains Texas law in general terms and is not legal advice for any specific situation. Statutes and case law change; the date above reflects the last review.