Editor’s Note: Law Week Colorado edits court opinion summaries for style and, when necessary, length.
Harrington v. Neutron Holdings
Electric scooters have permeated cities throughout the United States in recent years, and Denver is no exception. And with new technologies often come new twists on established legal principles. This is such a case, according to the opinion.
Applying tort common law, the Colorado Court of Appeals had to determine whether the companies that rent out those scooters owe a duty to the public to protect against injuries caused by their customers.
Neutron Holdings, Inc., doing business as Limebike or Lime, is one such company. It rents electric scooters to the public by placing them throughout Denver.
After colliding with someone riding a Lime scooter in the wrong direction, Josanna Harrington sued Lime for negligence. The district court dismissed the claim, concluding that Lime did not owe Harrington a duty to protect her from harm caused by a third party’s use of its scooter.
On the facts alleged in this case, the appeals court agreed with the district court. But it did not address the circumstances under which Lime might have such a duty as a result of its own acts or omissions or based on allegations that are not made in this case.
The appeals court held only that a company’s rental of electric scooters to third parties does not, in and of itself, give rise to a duty to members of the general public to protect them from users’ unsafe operation of the scooters.
The appeals court affirmed the dismissal of the claim.