No Duty (or Need) to Use Reasonable Care During Sex

This decision may give some of you peace of mind and cause others of you concern. An appellate court in Massachusetts has ruled that sexual partners do not owe a duty of care to avoid negligently injuring one another.

Apparently the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, demonstrated that the female defendant’s sudden and unexpected change in position resulted in a fracture to her partner’s penis.

Noting that “[t]here are no comprehensive legal rules to regulate consensual sexual behavior, and there are no commonly accepted customs or values that determine parameters for the intensely private and widely diverse forms of such behavior” the Court held that no duty of care existed and affirmed the dismissal of the case. The Court did say, however, “it is appropriate that [sexual partners] be held to a standard that requires them not to engage in wanton or reckless conduct toward each other during such consensual sexual conduct.”

Those of you who engage in “wanton” sexual conduct in Massachusetts now have exposure. Although I cannot give you legal advice, I recommend that you expose yourself somewhere else.