Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Friday, April 13, 2018

 

Page 1

 

Court of Appeal:

Causation in Case Involving an Accident Is ‘Even More Tenuous’ Than in Palsgraf

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

The First District Court of Appeal has affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the defendant in a case in which it said that causation was “even more tenuous” than in Palsgraf, a 1928 case decided by New York’s highest court that has been read through the decades by nearly every first year law student.

Justice Stuart R. Pollak of Div. Three wrote the opinion, filed March 20 and certified for publication yesterday. It affirms summary judgment in favor of Continental Tire North America, a tire manufacturer.

The trial court found a lack of a causal link between one accident—resulting from a tire blow-out in 2005, which caused the car to hit a pole, creating a need for Alex Novak, a passenger in that car, to have need for a motorized scooter—and a 2011 collision of the scooter and an automobile in a crosswalk, which brought about Novak’s death eight days later.

‘Classic Case’

“The classic case is Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., Pollak noted.

The facts, as set forth by New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo (later a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) were:

“Plaintiff was standing on a platform of defendant’s railroad after buying a ticket to go to Rockaway Beach. A train stopped at the station, bound for another place. Two men ran forward to catch it. One of the men reached the platform of the car without mishap, though the train was already moving. The other man, carrying a package, jumped aboard the car, but seemed unsteady as if about to fall. 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. In this act, the package was dislodged, and fell upon the rails. It was a package of small size, about fifteen inches long, and was covered by a newspaper. In fact it contained fireworks, but there was nothing in its appearance to give notice of its contents. The fireworks when they fell exploded. The shock of the explosion threw down some scales at the other end of the platform, many feet away. The scales struck the plaintiff, causing injuries for which she sues.”

Causal Connection Lacking

Pollak wrote:

Palsgraf and other cases denying liability for an injury following an unlikely series of events have sometimes been resolved as a question of duty but, ultimately, are founded on the lack of a close causal connection between the defendant’s conduct and the injury suffered.”

The contention that there was fault on behalf of the defendant was founded on the contention that it had failed to warn of rubber degradation in old tires. Pollak observed:

“[T]the facts here show that the second accident is not a normal consequence of the original injury and the negligence of a third person—the motorist who failed to yield to Novak in the crosswalk—was the superseding cause of the injury he suffered.”

The case is Novak v. Continental Tire North America, A149494.

 

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