Section 32 Violation of Rules as Negligence Per Se

• Library: Administrative Law 2011

Two Missouri cases deal with the concept of violation of rules as negligence per se, but both resulted in a finding that violation of rules was not negligence per se in the instant case.

In Fields v. Missouri Power & Light Co., 374 S.W.2d 17, 31 (Mo. 1963), the plaintiff was a tenant in a room in which there was a gas explosion. The gas had been turned on in violation of a gas company rule requiring gas to be turned on only by an authorized agent of the company. The plaintiff asserted that the violation of the rule constituted negligence per se, but the court pointed out that the rule was made by the private company, not the PSC:

As...