Bethel v. New York City Transit Authority, 92 N.Y.2d 348, 681 N.Y.S.2d 201, 703 N.E.2d 1214 (N.Y. 1998)
Bethel v. New York City Transit Authority marks a pivotal shift in New York tort law governing the duty of care owed by common carriers to their passengers.
Do common carriers in New York owe their passengers a special duty of the "highest degree of care," or is the carrier's duty properly defined as ordinary reasonable care under the circumstances?
In New York, a common carrier owes its passengers a duty to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances. The carrier is not an insurer of passenger safety, and the degree of care required varies with the dangers reasonably to be perceived, but the applicable standard is ordinary negligence—reasonable care—not a distinct "highest degree of care" standard.
The New York Court of Appeals abandoned the "highest degree of care" instruction for common carriers and held that the proper standard is ordinary reasonable care under the circumstances. Because the jury was charged under the superseded heightened standard, the Court ordered a new trial.
Bethel is a cornerstone New York tort case for the duty of care in common carrier cases. It eliminates a special, historically freighted standard and aligns carrier liability with the general negligence framework taught in modern torts. For law students, Bethel illustrates how courts reassess doctrine in light of changed social conditions and the importance of precise jury instructions. Substantively, it confirms that the level of care remains variable with the risk, but the governing standard is a single, coherent rule: reasonable care under the circumstances. Procedurally, it affects how cases are charged to juries, argued on summary judgment, and analyzed for appellate review.