Palsgraf v. The Long Island Railroad - Essay Example

Palsgraf v. The Long Island Railroad 248 N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. 99, 1928 N.Y.Lexis 1269 (N.Y Most courts still apply Cardozo’s point of view regardingcausation (Beatty & Samuelson, 154). In this case, the Court through Justice Cardozo ruled essentially that the defendant guard’s conduct in helping one of the passengers board the train whose package fell, “was not a wrong in its relation to the plaintiff, standing far away” (Palsgraf v. the Long Island Railroad). The package wrapped in a newspaper contained fireworks which exploded and which struck the plaintiff, causing injuries (Palsgraf v.

the Long Island Railroad). Cardozo in its decision ruled that such an act in relation to the plaintiff was not negligence (Palsgraf v. the Long Island Railroad). The court explained that “nothing in the situation gave notice that the falling package had in it the potency of peril to persons thus removed” (Palsgraf v. the Long Island Railroad). The court stressed that “negligence is not actionable unless it involves the invasion of a legally protected interest, the violation of a right” (Palsgraf v.

the Long Island Railroad). In the instant case, it was not proved that defendant’s conduct actually caused the injury and that the harm caused was foreseeable (Beatty & Samuelson, 153-154). Plaintiff was unable to show that there was a violation of her own right in the act of the defendant guard in helping the passenger board the train (Palsgraf v. the Long Island Railroad). Although this view is still applied, the issue of proximate cause has been used by judges to control the issues given to juries (Green, 755, 773-74).

The six rules often used by courts are: remoteness of defendant’s conduct, direct injury, foreseeable, foreseeable small risk, foreseeable plaintiff, and practical politics (Benston & Vandall, 305). Hence, aside from the ruling used by Cardozo, these tests have also been used by judges to aid them in various cases involving torts. Works Cited Beatty, Jeffrey & Susan Samuelson. Business Law and the Legal Environment. Ohio: Thomson, West, 2007. Print. Benston, George & Frank Vandall. Legal Control over the Supply of Handguns: An Analysis of the Issues, With Particular Attention to the Law and Economics of the Hamilton v.

Beretta Lawsuit Against Handgun Manufacturers. Pace Law Review, 2006. Volume 26: 305. Green, Leon. “Proximate Cause in Texas Negligence Law.” Texas Law Review, 1950. Volume 28: 755, 773-74. Palsgraf v. The Long Island Railroad, 248 N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. 99, 1928 N.Y.Lexis 1269 (N.Y.).