Safer v. Pack
Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division
677 A.2d 1188 (1996)
Dr. George Pack (defendant) treated Donna Safer's (plaintiff) father, Robert Batkin, for a hereditary form of colon cancer that ultimately killed him, but never warned Batkin's wife or daughter that Safer faced a heightened hereditary risk. Safer was diagnosed with colon cancer at 36 and underwent major surgery before learning from her father's medical records that he had suffered the same hereditary form of the disease. She sued Pack's estate for professional negligence in failing to warn her; the trial court dismissed, reasoning a physician's duty to warn requires an actual doctor-patient relationship, which Pack and Safer never had, and Safer appealed.
Whether a physician is under a legal duty to warn members of a patient's immediate family of a genetic risk that may cause adverse conditions or diseases.