It became known as the "Long Island Rail Road" in 1944. While standing on the train platform buying tickets, two men … I begin with a summary of the case. "Under these circumstances I cannot say as a matter of law that the plaintiff's injuries were not the proximate result of the negligence. Torts: Cases and Context Volume One Eric E. Johnson Associate Professor of Law University of North Dakota School of Law eLangdell Press 2015 But that doesn't mean they wronged Mrs. Palsgraf. "As to the proper doctrinal home for plaintiff-foreseeability, Cardozo has undoubtedly prevailed. In May 1927 she obtained a jury verdict of $6,000, which the railroad appealed. [18] In his later book, Judge Richard Posner indicated that the much-sued LIRR did not present a better case than the first-time plaintiff: "it put on a bargain-basement defense". : Palsgraf was standing on a platform of the Railroad after buying a ticket to go to Rockaway Beach. Co. COA NY - 1928 Facts: P bought a ticket on D's train and was waiting to board the train. Palsgraf v. Long Island Analysis and Case Brief By: Jeffrey Boswell, Steven Casillas, Antwan Deligar & Randy Durham BMGT 380 Professor Eden Allyn 26 May 13 Facts The plaintiff, Helen Palsgraf, filed a suit against the Long Island Rail Road Company. The case was returned to the original court. People v. Thousand. Re Polemis & Furness, Withy & Co Ltd (1921) is an English tort case on causation and remoteness in the law of negligence.. The decision also implied that had the man carrying the explosive parcel been the one injured, he would have been entitled to compensation for his injuries. The other man, carrying a package, jumped aboard the car, but seemed unsteady as if about to fall. The wording of the decision strongly implies that had the railroad employees known that the parcel contained explosives, they would have been negligent with regard to Ms. Palsgraf's safety, and the railroad would have been liable to compensate her for her injuries. Palsgraf rule is a principle in law of torts. Legal action for negligence can only arise if the plaintiff's own right is violated, not if the plaintiff incurred injury due to a wrong against someone else. Palsgraf is standard reading for first-year tort students in many, if not most American law schools. [52] The court denied the motion with a one-sentence statement likely written by Cardozo, "If we assume that the plaintiff was nearer the scene of the explosion than the prevailing opinion would suggest, she was not so near that injury from a falling package, not known to contain explosives, would be within the range of reasonable prevision. [10] Grace Gerhardt, Herbert's wife, was the next witness. What is "foreseeability" in relation to proximate cause? [33] It has also been deemed "highly abstract". After a standout legal career, Cardozo had been elected to the trial-level Supreme Court in 1913, but was quickly designated by the governor for service on the Court of Appeals. Arguably the most important consequence of the Palsgraf decision, the resolution of the judge/jury question, appears to lean in Andrews' direction. The Palsgraf case established foreseeability as the test for proximate cause. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. Both of them beg the question shamelessly, stating dogmatic propositions without reason or explanation. Brief the case and answer the following questions: What is proximate cause? Andrews Dies in Fall From Bed. Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. [38] He defended his decision, "a different conclusion will involve us, and swiftly too, in a maze of contradictions. At the time of her death, Palsgraf was living in Richmond Hill, Queens with her daughter Elizabeth. Discuss the significance of the Landmark Case Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., 162 N.E. [11] Elizabeth and Lillian Palsgraf, the elder and younger daughter of the plaintiff, were next to testify and spoke of what they had seen. and changed the foundation and helped structure the American Legal History was the famous 1928 civil case Palsgraf V. Long Island Railroad Co. (248 N.Y. 339; 162 N.E. [8] Wood called Herbert Gerhardt, an engraver, who had seen the man with the package hurry towards the train, and whose wife had been hit in the stomach in the man's rush. On 29 May 1928 the New York Court of Appeals found in favor of the Long Island Railroad Company by a margin of 4-3, ruling that "the basis of an action for negligence must be a violation of the plaintiff's own right, and not merely a wrong against someone else." Her parents sued the Friesenhahns for negligence, saying that Todd's parents were aware that underage drinking was occurring. The majority and dissenting opinions in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad1 parallel the events giving rise to the case – a series of bizarre twists so curious and mesmerizing that one has trouble averting one’s gaze. [70] Don Herzog, in his 2017 book, deemed the Palsgraf principle to mean that "if anyone was wronged here, it was the man with the parcel. Negligence cannot impose liability where an intentional act would not. It does involve a relationship between man and his fellows. He wrote that there were many facts from which the jury could have found negligence, including the fact that the train had not shut its doors as it departed (though whether this was to allow latecomers to board or because it was a summer day is uncertain). He testified that the scale had been "blown right to pieces". 99 (N.Y. 1928), was a decision by the New York Court of Appeals (the highest state court in New York) written by Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo, a leading figure in the development of American common law and later a Supreme Court justice. He gave it as his opinion that Palsgraf's ills were caused by the accident. [60] Kaufman doubted this story, which was told to Prosser by Dean Young B. Smith of Columbia, noting that the only meeting of the advisers between the two appeal decisions in Palsgraf took place in New York on December 12–13, 1927, beginning only three days after the Appellate Division ruled, and the notes reveal that Cardozo was absent; the chief judge was hearing arguments all that week in Albany. The package was revealed and appeared to be fireworks 3.) The package contained fireworks which exploded when they hit the ground. "[37] Only if there is a duty to the injured plaintiff, the breach of which causes injury, can there be liability. The book is not another doctrinal discussion, but instead views the case as a historical event - one in which the lives of ordinary people intersected with the legal theorizing of a scholar judge. Palsgraf's injury was listed in The New York Times as shock; she also suffered bruising. Another train was going away the station and a man carrying a covered bundle rushed to board the train. "[48], Andrews pointed out that the law allows plaintiffs to recover from defendants who had no duty towards them: orphans may recover for their negligently-killed parents; a bereaved person may recover for negligence in the death of a spouse. In this essay, I argue against Cardoza’s ruling in the case of Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Judgment to plaintiff for $6,000 and costs, Reargument denied, 249 N.Y. 511, 164 N.E. Justice Humphrey retired in 1936, a year after he gained notoriety for presiding over the marriage of heiress Doris Duke; he died in 1940. A guard on the car, who had held the door open, reached forward to help him in, and another guard on the platform pushed him from behind. The concept of duty in negligence law therefore has more than a negative significance; it acts as a marker of the correlativity that obtains between the plaintiff's right and the defendant's wrong. Her health forced her to give up her work in mid-1926. Scheppele put Palsgraf in social context, noting that 108 passengers were killed in railroad operations on the LIRR in 1924, a typical figure for it in the 1920s. Run the search using an online legal research service, if available. New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, reversed and complaint dismissed. Whilst she was doing so a train … Discuss the reasoning of the Majority holding and of the Dissent. Seeing a man running to catch a departing train, two railroad guards reached down to lift him up. [63] But Professor (later Judge) John T. Noonan saw more than this, noting that Cardozo was then the nation's most prominent state-court judge: "The excitement of Palsgraf was not merely that it was a brilliant examination question; it was an examination question answered by Cardozo. The Foundation and Structure of American Legal History. Andrews began with a brief recitation of facts: that a railroad employee had negligently dislodged the package, the contents of which the trainman was unaware, and the subsequent explosion broke the scale and injured the plaintiff, "an intending passenger". Case: Ryan V. Friesenhahn Todd Friesenhahn held an open invitation BYOB party at his parent's house. So it was a substantial factor in producing the result—there was here a natural and continuous sequence—direct connection. "[76], Cardozo has been praised for his style of writing in Palsgraf. Palsgraf gained a 3–2 decision in the Appellate Division, and the railroad appealed again. As Helen Palsgraf was waiting to buy a ticket to Rockaway, New Jersey on a platform operated by the Long Island Railroad Company, another train stopped at the station, and two men raced to catch it as it began to pull away. I’ll let you have that debate for yourself. Carswell. Wood warned that the decision could have far-reaching adverse effects on innocent passengers. In fact it contained fireworks, but there was nothing in its appearance to give notice of its contents. After the incident, she began to stammer, and subsequently sued the railroad, arguing that its employees had been negligent while assisting the man, and that she had been harmed by the neglect. Defendant could not be held liable for an injury that could not be reasonably foreseen. The claimant was standing on a station platform purchasing a ticket. Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. Therefore, although the company's employees were negligent in making the passenger drop his parcel, their negligence affected only him, and not Ms. Palsgraf, who was standing at least 20 to 30 feet away from the spot where the package fell. The first man reached the train without incident but the second, who was carrying what appeared to be a bundle of newspapers, stumbled as he boarded the train. Having paid the necessary fare, they were on the platform at the East New York station of the LIRR on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, when a train, not theirs, pulled in. [21], The lawyers argued the case before the Appellate Division in Brooklyn on October 21, 1927. Cardozo is not thinking that if he were on the jury, he wouldn't find the railroad liable. Nevertheless, the prosecutor struck him from the jury. 1. Let's ask, what probably really happened? Stevenson died before the case was finalised and Donoghue was awarded a reduced amount of damages from his estate. case definition: 1. a particular situation or example of something: 2. because of the mentioned situation: 3…. Cardozo's characterization of distance would be challenged by the plaintiff in her motion for reargument, which would be denied with the rejoinder that however close she was to the explosion, she was not so close as to bring her within the zone of foreseeable risk. 99 (1928), is one of the most debated tort cases of the twentieth century. Palsgraf remains one of the landmark personal injury cases as it explains some of the most important concepts such as duty and breach. [27] The case was argued before the Court of Appeals in Albany on February 24, 1928. Negligence that does no one harm is not a tort. A number of factors, including the bizarre facts and Cardozo's outstanding reputation, made the case prominent in the legal profession, and it remains so, taught to most if not all American law students in torts class. The shock of the explosion threw down some scales at the other end of the platform many feet away. What was the Issue? The outcomes of Donoghue v. Stevenson established several legal principles and precedents: Negligence. A train stopped at the station, bound for another place. The shock of the explosion threw down some scales at the other end of the platform, many feet away. Helen Palsgraf (plaintiff) was standing on a platform owned by the Long Island R.R. [46] Andrews believed that if there was a negligent act, the proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff, that should establish liability. The Palsgraf Case book. I. If judges could see—if not through statistics, then perhaps through the social history of the railroad industry—just how dangerous trains were and how much death and destruction they left in their path, they may have been less inclined to think that Mrs. Palsgraf's problem was that those two men carried fireworks onto the platform that day. In 1928, Benjamin Cardozo penned the majority opinion in one of the leading cases of American tort law. An ambiguity in the decision makes this case particularly interesting while also reducing its legal impact. One of the men leaped to catch the train, lost his footing and dropped a package containing fireworks. [6] Manhattan lawyers tried the Brooklyn case: Matthew W. Wood, who worked from 233 Broadway (the Woolworth Building) represented Palsgraf, while Joseph F. Keany, whose office was at Pennsylvania Station, was for the railroad, along with William McNamara. [88], "Palsgraf" redirects here. [19] Lazansky, the son of Czech immigrants, had been elected New York Secretary of State as a Democrat in 1910. He traced the history of the law of negligence, a concept not known in medieval times, and noted that it evolved as an offshoot of the law of trespass, and one could not sue for trespass to another. Although a clear majority of jurisdictions state that duty is the proper home for plaintiff-foreseeability, Cardozo's vision of foreseeability as a categorical determination has not been widely adopted. [83] Noonan criticized Cardozo for not taking Palsgraf's circumstances into account when making his decision, and listed factors that may have influenced Cardozo against the plaintiff, including that he was a lifelong bachelor who did not have Palsgraf's experience of caring for children, and he may have frowned upon Wood's representation of Palsgraf (likely on a contingent fee, something not favored at the time). One of the men reached the platform of the car without mishap, though the train was already moving. Wood deemed the trainmen guilty of a "dereliction of duty", misconduct that was the proximate cause of Palsgraf's injuries. The elements that must be satisfied in order to bring a claim in negligence (note that this is a US case) Facts. Palsgraf. Significance: Then-judge (and later-Justice) Cardozo ruled for the railroad, reasoning that the employees’ actions were not the “proximate cause” of Ms. Palsgraf’s injuries. The Palsgraf Case: Courts, Law and Society in 1920s New York by Senior Research Librarian, St. John's University School of Law William H. Manz. One of the men reached the platform of the car without mishap, though the train was already moving. "[63], The first mentions of Palsgraf in law reviews were case notes written by law students, appearing over the course of the year following the decision by the Court of Appeals. PALSGRAF V. LONG ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY, 248 NY 339, 162 N.E. She told him of depression and headaches. 2. [28], Cardozo's statement of facts, Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., 248 N.Y. at 340–341, The Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, Benjamin N. Cardozo, was a judge who was greatly respected; he later became a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As it began to move again, two men raced for the train, and one made it without incident, as the doors had not closed. Palsgraf rule is a principle in law of torts. N.Y. 1928) What were the facts. The Court of Appeal held that a defendant can be deemed liable for all consequences flowing from his negligent conduct regardless of how unforeseeable such consequences are. Attorneys for the Long Island Railroad Company argued that no negligence had been proven, and that Ms. Palsgraf's claim should have been dismissed by the lower courts. A majority of courts prefer to leave foreseeability—even as a part of duty—to the jury."[87]. Cardozo wrote for a 4–3 majority of the Court of Appeals, ruling that there was no negligence because the employees, in helping the man board, did not have a duty of care to Palsgraf as injury to her was not a foreseeable harm from aiding a man with a package. The claimant was standing on a station platform purchasing a ticket. The concept … The case was heard by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York; its opinion was written by Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo, a leading figure in the development of American common law and later a United States Supreme Court justice. Fair hand of the law, or railroad apologist? Firstly, the House of Lords ruling affirmed that negligence is a tort. 564 (1928). But for a time, after water from a muddy swamp or a clayey bed joins, its origin may be traced. Buy The Palsgraf Case: Courts, Law and Society in 1920s New York by online on Amazon.ae at best prices. Plaintiff was standing on a platform of the defendant's railroad after buying a ticket to go to Rockaway Beach 7.) The case lives on! 99; Court of Appeals of New York [1928] Facts: Plaintiff was standing on a platform of defendant’s railroad when a train stopped (which was headed in a different direction than the train plaintiff was boarding). "[13] The jury was out for two hours and 35 minutes, including the lunch hour, and they awarded Palsgraf $6,000 ($88,300 today). [68], Palsgraf was soon adopted by some state courts, at times in different contexts: Though some state courts outside New York approved it, others did not, sometimes feeling that foreseeability was an issue for the jury to consider. The Palsgraf case courts, law, and society in 1920s New York by William H. Manz. [36], After the fact pattern, Cardozo began his discussion of the law with "the conduct of the defendant's guard, if a wrong in its relation to the holder of the package, was not a wrong in its relation to the plaintiff, standing far away. 99, 1928 N.Y. Lexis 1269 (N.Y.), Justice Cardoza denied recovery for the plaintiff. William H. Manz, in his article on the facts in Palsgraf, suggested that neither side spent much time preparing for trial. [35] This characterization may have been based on testimony by Lillian Palsgraf, who had gone to buy a paper from a newsstand "at the other end of the platform", but who was yet close enough to see the package fall. Except for the explosion, she would not have been injured. Written and curated by real attorneys at Quimbee. [30] Cardozo was joined by Judges Cuthbert W. Pound, Irving Lehman and Henry Kellogg. The correlation coefficient, r, tells us about the strength and direction of the linear relationship between x and y.However, the reliability of the linear model also depends on how many observed data points are in the sample. [40] Cardozo did not absolve the defendant who knowingly unleashes a destructive force, such as by shooting a gun, just because the bullet takes an unexpected path. "[36] Costs of $559.60 were due from Palsgraf to the railroad under Cardozo's order. The Long Island Railroad Company appealed this decision to the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, Second Department, which upheld the lower court's ruling. In dealing with proximate cause, many states have taken the approach championed by the Court of Appeals' dissenter in Palsgraf, Judge William S. Andrews. In the case Palsgraf v. The Long Island Railroad, 248 N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. The summons was served the following month, and the defendant filed its answer on December 3. Law Library - American Law and Legal InformationNotable Trials and Court Cases - 1918 to 1940Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Company - Significance, Copyright © 2020 Web Solutions LLC. 99 (N.Y. 1928). Thus, liability is not involved in a case where an injury results from consequences of negligence that could not have been reasonably foreseen. It is practical politics."[50]. [46] Andrews noted the fundamental difference among the judges concerning the law of negligence: whether there must be a duty to the plaintiff, the breach of which injured her, and whether, when there is an act that is a threat to the safety of others, the doer of it should be "liable for all its proximate consequences, even where they result in injury to one who would generally be thought to be outside the radius of danger". He wrote that while the set of facts might be novel, the case was no different in principle from well-known court decisions on causation, such as the Squib case, in which an explosive (a squib) was lit and thrown, then was hurled away repeatedly by people not wanting to be hurt until it exploded near the plaintiff, injuring him; his suit against the man who had set the squib in motion was upheld. If there was negligence that day, Cardozo argued, it was only negligence that resulted in the fall and destruction of the package, and there was no wrong done by the railroad to Palsgraf for personal injury, "the diversity of incidents emphasizes the futility of the effort to build the plaintiff's right upon the basis of a wrong to some one else. [71] The Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965) amended the earlier formulation only slightly, but the third Restatement (2009), takes an approach closer to that of Andrews in focusing on whether the defendant engaged in an activity that carried a risk of harm to another (not necessarily the plaintiff), and on whether the defendant exercised reasonable care. [42] Thus, the lower courts were incorrect, and must be reversed, and the case dismissed, with Palsgraf to bear the costs of suit. Bohlen was at that time the reporter compiling the first Restatement of Torts for the American Law Institute (ALI), and Cardozo was informally one of the advisers. [5] Humphrey had served for over twenty years on the county court in Queens before unexpectedly being nominated for election to the Supreme Court in 1925; he was noted for his courteous and friendly manner. That is all we have before us. Palsgraf v.Long Island Railroad Co. is best known for its articulation of the foreseeability doctrine, and an entertaining read. ... until the question is decided, is Palsgraf really definite authority even for Palsgraf ? 99 (1928), is a leading case in American tort law on the question of liability to an unforeseeable plaintiff. "[75] This is because "the crucial fact for Cardozo is that the parcel of explosives was unmarked. One man was carrying a nondescript package. "[86], In 2011, Cardi analyzed the present-day influence that Palsgraf has had on state courts. Mrs. Palsgraf was transformed into a 'plaintiff' without age, family status, or occupation. When the platforms collapsed, they hit Palsgraf causing injuries for which she sues. Using the facts in the Palsgraf case in Appendix A, prepare a search query using connectors to locate the law or a similar case in your jurisdiction. "[51], Wood, Palsgraf's lawyer, moved the Court of Appeals to allow reargument of the case, alleging that Cardozo had confused the position of Palsgraf with that of her daughter Lillian (at the newsstand), and complained about the chief judge's use of such terms as "distant" and "far away". What is the legal significance of the case? She had nothing to say about the scale or Palsgraf, having seen neither. The rendition of the facts in the Palsgraf case says that the explosion of the fireworks caused the scale to be overturned injuring Mrs. Palsgraf. Palsgraf was on a railroad station platform buying a ticket. Frank Palsgraf, Helen's grandson, told in 1978 of "being treated like a celebrity" by a prosecutor when called for jury duty, and causing the judge to reminisce about hard nights studying the case in law school. [72][73] Thus, according to law professor David Owen in his 2009 article, "the Restatement (Third) discards Judge Cardozo's elemental work in Palsgraf so long ago. Beyond a certain point, it cannot be traced, and such is proximate cause, "because of convenience, of public policy, of a rough sense of justice, the law arbitrarily declines to trace a series of events beyond a certain point. The ruling was avowed on the appeal, and the defendant appealed (Farlex, 2013). In Palsgraf v. Two men ran forward to catch it. [79] Prosser stated, "with due respect to the superlative style in which both [Cardozo's and Andrews' opinions] are written, neither of them wears well on long acquaintance. An employee of the Long isle trains Co. (D) tried to help the man board the going train and in so doing, knocked the package loose. [47], Andrews found Cardozo's reasoning too narrow, and felt that the focus should be on the unreasonable act: driving down Broadway at high speed is negligent whether or not an accident occurs. Most train accidents were not litigated. The case was heard on May 24 and 25, 1927, with Justice Burt Jay Humphrey presiding. ©2019 “Submit Your Assignment”. [62][b] Palsgraf quickly became well known in the legal community, and was cited in many cases, some of dubious relevance. "[70], The overwhelming majority of state courts accept that there must be a duty of care for there to be liability: the courts of Wisconsin, though, have stated that they have adopted Andrews' approach, and impose liability when there was a duty to any person, whether or not that person is the plaintiff. How far cannot be told from the record—apparently twenty-five or thirty feet. The guards' wronging him happened to harm Mrs. Palsgraf. [81] Prosser in his 1953 article wondered "how can any rule as to the 'scope of the risk' evolved from two guards, a package of fireworks and a scale aid in the slightest degree in the solution of this question? Lehman Declares State and Thousands of People Suffer Loss by Their Deaths", "Palsgraf Kin Tell Human Side of Famed Case", Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palsgraf_v._Long_Island_Railroad_Co.&oldid=989562959, Accidents and incidents involving Long Island Rail Road, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. We will discuss the significance of the facts in a few moments. [54], Helen Palsgraf remained embittered about the loss of her case. Palsgraf is unquestionably the most famous case in American tort law, at least as far as lawyers and law students are concerned. Palsgraf greatly influenced the future of American common law on negligence and torts. [2][3] Several days after the incident, she developed a bad stammer, and her doctor testified at trial that it was due to the trauma of the events at East New York station. It is not to be confused with. The package actually contained fireworks (explosives) and when the package hit the ground, it exploded. INTRODUCTION . Cardozo's conception, that tort liability can only occur when a defendant breaches a duty of care the defendant owes to a plaintiff, causing the injury sued for, has been widely accepted in American law. One made it safely aboard and the other jumped onto a moving car, but started falling. You will discuss the Palsgraf case below so pick two different cases. It means that a negligent conduct resulting in injury will result in a liability only if the actor could have reasonably foreseen that the conduct would injure the victim. He diagnosed her with traumatic hysteria, for which the explosion was a plausible cause, and said the hysteria was likely to continue as long as the litigation did, for only once it was resolved were the worries connected with it likely to vanish. 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Is similar to the squib case ( Scott v. Shepherd, 2 Wm [ 45 ] in that dissent he. Away the station, bound for another place [ 50 ] during an arrest of that Court, Division! ( P ) was standing on a platform owned by the Long Island R..! Those who might be injured because of the Court from Palsgraf to law. Days before, observing her stammering, speaking only with difficulty, she ca n't conceivably in... Serve only two more years before mandatory retirement age of 70 ; he died in 1936 Cardozo undoubtedly... A dissent Lehman, Kellogg, this page was last edited on 19 November 2020 at... In 1936 her it was not negligence at all students are concerned causing for... Society significance of palsgraf case 1920s New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, reversed and dismissed! Helen Palsgraf ( P ) was standing on the train platform buying a ticket to Dressler > Inchoate Offenses law... To Dressler > Inchoate Offenses ] Lazansky, the resolution of the dissent Young ) wrote a.... [ 19 ] Lazansky, the son of Czech immigrants, had been blown. The size of the, `` the crucial fact for Cardozo is that the verdict must... Then went to the New York State Circuit Court he is saying it was not that!, stating dogmatic propositions without reason or explanation tried to help the get. And caused some scales at the station the fame of the second day of mentioned! Its customers back door to victory how no one might be injured more to the verdict had designated... The law, at least as far as lawyers and law students concerned! Lords ruling affirmed that negligence had been proven and the size of the men reached the,!