Opinion ID: 744059
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Liability for negligence

Text: 47 To hold a defendant liable in negligence in New York, a plaintiff must show: 1) a duty on the part of the defendant; 2) a breach of that duty by conduct involving an unreasonable risk of harm, W. PAGE KEETON, DAN B. DOBBS, ROBERT E. KEETON & DAVID G. OWEN, PROSSER AND KEETON ON THE LAW OF TORTS, § 53 at 358 (5th ed.1984) [hereinafter PROSSER & KEETON]; 3) damages suffered by the plaintiff; and 4) causation, both in fact and proximate, between the breach and the plaintiff's harm. See, e.g., Febesh v. Elcejay Inn Corp., 157 A.D.2d 102, 555 N.Y.S.2d 46, 47 (1990); Stagl v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 52 F.3d 463, 467 (2d Cir.1995). So viewed, three of the four elements of a cause of action for negligence--damages, causation, and conduct involving an unreasonable risk of harm--are either readily present or sufficiently cognizable under New York law on the facts of this case that a federal court would err mightily to hold on its own to the contrary. The fourth, the existence of a duty, is a more difficult question. But it is one that, I submit, only the New York Court of Appeals (or the New York Legislature) can answer. 48
49 The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that the defendant created an unreasonable risk of harm both by manufacturing Black Talons 10 and by marketing them to the general public. On appeal, the plaintiffs have pursued only their negligent marketing claim. 50 Could a New York jury find that there was an undue risk of harm, if not in producing Black Talons, then in advertising them for use by (and selling them to) the general public? Put differently, could a jury find that the benefit gained by making Black Talons available to the public was outweighed by their potential harm. 11 I believe that a reasonable jury could so find. 51 The distinctive feature of the Black Talon bullet is that it is designed to expand upon impact exposing razor-sharp edges at a 90-degree angle to the bullet. This expansion dramatically increases the wounding power of the bullets. McCarthy v. Sturm, Ruger and Co., 916 F.Supp. 366, 368 (S.D.N.Y.1996); see also Winchester Halts Sale of Disintegrating Bullet to Public, SALT LAKE TRIB., Nov. 23, 1993, at A4 [hereinafter Winchester Halts Sale ] (The 9mm bullets disintegrate upon impact into tiny razor-like claws that tear up tissues and organs.); Wendell Jamieson, Winchester Disarms a Killer Bullet, NEWSDAY (New York), Nov. 23, 1993, at 5 (noting that the devastating bullets ... bloom into claw-like prongs on impact and cause hideous, gaping wounds). The defendant marketed the product to civilian consumers in a slick black box bearing the words BLACK TALON surrounded by the sharp, gleaming claws of a bird of prey. It is certainly possible that a fact-finder would conclude that any benefit that comes from marketing and selling bullets with this additional destructive feature to private citizens is outweighed by their potential for significant harm. 52 There is nothing novel in finding negligence on these grounds. New York law recognizes that a defendant can be held liable for negligently marketing a product. See, e.g., Kaufman v. Eli Lilly and Co., 65 N.Y.2d 449, 492 N.Y.S.2d 584, 589, 482 N.E.2d 63, 68 (1985); Bikowicz v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 161 A.D.2d 982, 557 N.Y.S.2d 551, 552 (1990). And there is no reason why that principle should not allow recovery against a manufacturer who introduces a harmful product into general circulation, where the social utility of marketing that product to the public is outweighed by its risk of harm. See McClurg, supra; Joseph A. Page, Liability for Unreasonably and Unavoidably Unsafe Products: Does Negligence Doctrine Have a Role to Play?, 72 CHI.-KENT. L. REV . 87 (1996); 12 see also Ezagui v. Dow Chem. Corp., 598 F.2d 727, 736 (2d Cir.1979) (applying New York law) (finding a prima facie case of negligence because Parke-Davis, as a matter of law, owed plaintiff a duty to exercise reasonable care in the design and in the decision to market Quadrigen) (emphasis added). 13 53 The fact that the New York legislature has not chosen to forbid the distribution of Black Talons in no way alters the conclusion that the defendant may have been negligent in marketing them to the general public. 14 There are all sorts of situations in which the general distribution of an object is legal, but the decision to market and sell it to certain persons is nonetheless negligent because it poses an undue risk of harm. When fireworks were legal, it was still negligent to market and sell them to children. See Erwin v. Dunn, 201 S.W.2d 240, 242 (Tex.Civ.App.1947). Similarly, even in the absence of a statute, serving alcohol to intoxicated adults is negligent. And this is so despite the fact that serving alcohol to sober ones is not. See Morrissey v. Sheedy, 26 A.D.2d 683, 272 N.Y.S.2d 430, 431-32 (1966); Tyrrell v. Quigley, 186 Misc. 972, 60 N.Y.S.2d 821, 822 (N.Y.Sup.Ct.1946). Selling tanks to the armed forces is fine; selling them to the general public is, I would think, clearly negligent. 54 I therefore conclude that there is little doubt that if the New York Court of Appeals chooses not to allow this type of negligent marketing claim to go forward, it will do so not because it holds, as a matter of law, that the defendant's actions did not create an unreasonable risk of harm, but rather because it finds no duty, that is, because it believes that sound public policy does not dictate the imposition of liability, despite the fact that the defendant may have acted negligently. See infra Part II.A.4; McClurg, supra, at 795-99; Page, supra, at 98-99.
55 No one questions that the plaintiffs suffered harm of the most serious sort on the evening of December 7, 1993. Carolyn McCarthy lost her husband, who was shot in the head with a Black Talon bullet. Kevin McCarthy was shot in the head and hand, and now suffers paralysis. Maryanne Phillips was shot in her left arm, which was nearly destroyed by a Black Talon bullet. Whether these damages can be said to have resulted from the defendant's decision to market Black Talons is a question of causation, and is considered immediately below.
56 Under New York law, a plaintiff alleging negligence must prove that the defendant's breach of duty was a cause of the plaintiff's injury. Generally, there must be cause in fact, a causal tendency (that is, a causal link), and proximate cause. See Guido Calabresi, Concerning Cause and the Law of Torts: An Essay for Harry Kalven, Jr., 43 U. CHI. L. REV . 69, 71-73 (1975) [hereinafter Calabresi, Concerning Cause ]. 57 The first of these, the requirement that the defendant's negligent act was a but for cause of the injury, see, e.g., Saulpaugh v. State, 132 A.D.2d 781, 517 N.Y.S.2d 328, 329 (1987), is readily met. To establish cause in fact, plaintiffs must generally prove that the specific damages they suffered resulted from the defendant's unduly risky conduct, and would not have occurred in the absence of the defendant's negligence. 15 In this case, cause in fact necessitates a showing that the damages complained of resulted from the uniquely destructive nature of the Black Talons. This is so because it is the marketing of bullets of this sort, with these uniquely destructive characteristics, that the plaintiffs allege to be unduly risky. 58 The plaintiffs have clearly made such a showing here. Their allegations, if true, will support a finding that, but for the defendant's marketing of its product to persons like Colin Ferguson, the plaintiffs would not have suffered such extensive injuries. Indeed, the majority concedes that [t]he injuries to Dennis and Kevin McCarthy and Maryanne Phillips were enhanced by the ripping and tearing action of the Black Talons. Ante, Op. at 151; cf. Bolm v. Triumph Corp., 33 N.Y.2d 151, 350 N.Y.S.2d 644, 647-48, 305 N.E.2d 769, 771-72 (1973) (holding that a manufacturer can be held liable in negligence for defects in design which do not cause accidents but do enhance or aggravate injuries). 59 Similarly there can be no doubt that a causal tendency was shown. 16 Knowing what we know now, we can surely say that the negligent marketing of bullets like the Black Talon increases the chances of such injuries occurring. Cf. Martin v. Herzog, 228 N.Y. 164, 126 N.E. 814, 816 (1920) ([E]vidence of a collision occurring more than an hour after sundown between a car and an unseen buggy, proceeding without lights, is evidence from which a causal connection may be inferred between the collision and the lack of signals.). 60 The existence of proximate cause is more of a question, but under New York law it too could properly be found by a jury. Despite the fact that the question of proximate cause is normally one for the fact finder, see Derdiarian v. Felix Contracting Corp., 51 N.Y.2d 308, 434 N.Y.S.2d 166, 167, 414 N.E.2d 666, 668 (1980), the district court in the instant case concluded that, as a matter of law, the defendant's alleged negligence was not a proximate cause of the plaintiffs' injuries. See McCarthy, 916 F.Supp. at 372. This holding was erroneous. 61 While it is true that an intervening intentional or criminal act will generally sever the liability of the original tort-feasor, New York law is clear that [t]hat doctrine has no application when the intentional or criminal intervention of a third party or parties is reasonably foreseeable. Kush v. City of Buffalo, 59 N.Y.2d 26, 462 N.Y.S.2d 831, 835, 449 N.E.2d 725, 729 (1983). Moreover, [a]n intervening act may not serve as a superseding cause, and relieve an actor of responsibility, where the risk of the intervening act occurring is the very same risk which renders the actor negligent. Derdiarian, 434 N.Y.S.2d at 170, 414 N.E.2d at 671. It cannot be said that criminal acts like Colin Ferguson's were, as a matter of law, not foreseeable. And it is precisely the unreasonable risk of this type of criminal activity that forms the basis of the plaintiffs' negligence claim. Accordingly, whether the defendant's alleged breach was a proximate cause of the plaintiffs' injuries is a question for the jury in this case.
62 Three of the four elements of negligence liability have, without question, been sufficiently alleged under New York law. The only aspect of this case--viewed as a negligence action--that is problematic is the existence of a duty. In order to establish a prima facie case of negligence under New York law, a claimant must show that ... the defendant owed the plaintiff a cognizable duty of care.... Stagl, 52 F.3d at 467; see also Strauss v. Belle Realty Co., 65 N.Y.2d 399, 492 N.Y.S.2d 555, 557, 482 N.E.2d 34, 36 (1985). In this case, the plaintiffs must show that the defendant was under a duty to protect them from the harm caused by foreseeable criminal intervenors, and that such a duty entailed refraining from aggressively marketing its product to the general public. 63 In many jurisdictions, the existence of a duty depends primarily on 1) the foreseeability of harm to the plaintiff that would flow from the defendant's negligent acts, 17 and 2) the absence of actions on the part of the plaintiff--like trespass or assumption of risk--that either destroy or lessen the defendant's liability. 18 In those jurisdictions, it is rarely worthwhile discussing duty separately from the existence of negligence, proximate cause, and special plaintiff attributes. In the absence of such plaintiff-based defenses, a general duty to refrain from causing foreseeable and unreasonable harm is assumed to exist. 64 That is not, however, the law in New York. Under New York law, the question of the existence of a [d]uty in negligence cases is [not] defined ... by foreseeability of injury. Strauss, 492 N.Y.S.2d at 557, 482 N.E.2d at 36; see also Pulka v. Edelman, 40 N.Y.2d 781, 390 N.Y.S.2d 393, 396, 358 N.E.2d 1019, 1022 (1976) (Foreseeability should not be confused with duty.... [Foreseeability] is applicable to determine the scope of duty--only after it has been determined that there is a duty.). Rather, the determination of the existence of a duty is a decision of public policy that the New York Court of Appeals has expressly retained for itself (and the courts generally): 65 The question of the scope of an alleged tort-feasor's duty is, in the first instance, a legal issue for the court to resolve. In this analysis, not only logic and science, but policy play an important role. The common law of torts is, at its foundation, a means of apportioning risks and allocating the burden of loss. While moral and logical judgments are significant components of the analysis, we are also bound to consider the larger social consequences of our decisions and to tailor our notion of duty so that the legal consequences of wrongs are limited to a controllable degree. 66 Waters v. New York City Housing Auth., 69 N.Y.2d 225, 513 N.Y.S.2d 356, 358, 505 N.E.2d 922, 923-24 (1987) (citations, brackets, and internal quotation marks omitted). 67 Unlike foreseeability and causation, which are issues generally and more suitably entrusted to fact finder adjudication, the definition of the existence and scope of an alleged tortfeasor's duty is usually a legal, policy-laden declaration reserved for Judges to make prior to submitting anything to fact-finding or jury consideration. Common-law experience teaches that duty is not something derived or discerned from an algebraic formula. Rather, it coalesces from vectored forces including logic, science, weighty competing socioeconomic policies and sometimes contractual assumptions of responsibility. These sources contribute to pinpointing and apportioning of societal risks and to an allocation of burdens of loss and reparation on a fair, prudent basis. 68 .... 69 ... Courts traditionally and as part of the common-law process fix the duty point by balancing factors, including the reasonable expectations of parties and society generally, the proliferation of claims, the likelihood of unlimited or insurer-like liability, disproportionate risk and reparation allocation, and public policies affecting the expansion or limitation of new channels of liability. 70 Palka v. Servicemaster Management Servs. Corp., 83 N.Y.2d 579, 611 N.Y.S.2d 817, 820-21, 634 N.E.2d 189, 192-93 (1994). 71 This does not mean that the court is required--or even permitted--to weigh such policy considerations to determine the existence of a duty in each individual New York negligence case. Once the New York Court of Appeals has established that the relationship between plaintiffs and defendants in certain circumstances or categories of cases suffices to establish a duty of due care, all cases of like kind are covered by that finding, and there is no warrant to take a case from the jury for a separate judicial examination of duty. 72 It follows that, before we can be confident that there is a jury question as to negligence in this case, we must find precedents that establish a duty between the parties in cases akin to this one. I am not prepared to make such a finding. Nor, however, am I prepared to say that the New York Court of Appeals would not find that such a precedent exists or create one in this case. I am not, in other words, satisfied that the New York Court of Appeals has made a policy determination, one way or the other, in circumstances akin to those here. 73 The majority, instead, has no difficulty concluding that New York courts have determined that there is no duty here. It relies on the New York Court of Appeals' statement that 74 [i]n the ordinary circumstance, common law in the State of New York does not impose a duty to control the conduct of third persons to prevent them from causing injury to others; liability for the negligent acts of third persons generally arises when the defendant has authority to control the actions of such third persons. This is so, we have said, even where as a practical matter defendant could have exercised such control. 75 Purdy v. Public Adm'r of Westchester, 72 N.Y.2d 1, 530 N.Y.S.2d 513, 516, 526 N.E.2d 4, 7 (1988) (citations omitted). 76 But the issue is nowhere near as simple as that. New York law is, in fact, quite clear that the defendant in many circumstances can be under a duty to the plaintiff that makes him liable for the harm caused by the intervening negligent acts of a third party. See, e.g., Modave v. Long Island Jewish Med. Ctr., 501 F.2d 1065, 1072 (2d Cir.1974) (Friendly, J.) (reciting the unassailable proposition of New York law 'that a wrongdoer is liable for the ultimate result, though the mistake or even negligence of the physician who treated the injury may have increased the damage which would otherwise have followed from the original wrong' ) (quoting Milks v. McIver, 264 N.Y. 267, 190 N.E. 487, 488 (1934)). 77 Moreover, in cases such as this one involving the introduction of goods into the stream of commerce, New York courts have had little difficulty in holding the original seller to have a duty not only to the purchaser and parties having a direct relationship with the purchaser, but also to third-party bystanders. Thus, in the celebrated case of Codling v. Paglia, 32 N.Y.2d 330, 345 N.Y.S.2d 461, 298 N.E.2d 622 (1973), the New York Court of Appeals found a duty to a bystander injured by the defendant's product (an automobile) even though the defendant seller had been found to be free from negligence by a jury and even though the negligence of the user/purchaser of the car was in part the cause of the bystander's injuries. See id., 345 N.Y.S.2d at 463, 298 N.E.2d at 624 (holding that, despite the negligent intervenor, the manufacturer of a defective product may be held liable to an innocent bystander ... for damages sustained in consequence of the defect). 19 78 In fact, under appropriate conditions, a defendant can even be held liable for the intervening criminal acts of a third party. See, e.g., Stagl, 52 F.3d at 467; Nallan v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 50 N.Y.2d 507, 429 N.Y.S.2d 606, 612-13, 407 N.E.2d 451, 457-58 (1980) (holding that a commercial landlord has a duty to take reasonable precautionary measures to minimize the risk of foreseeable criminal activity and to make the premises safe for the visiting public); Stevens v. Kirby, 86 A.D.2d 391, 450 N.Y.S.2d 607, 610 (1982) (A tavern owner owes a duty to his patrons to protect them from personal attack when he has reasonable cause to anticipate conduct on the part of third persons which is likely to endanger their safety.). 79 What then does the New York Court of Appeals mean when it says that it has 80 imposed a duty to control the conduct of others where there is a special relationship: a relationship between defendant and [an intervenor] whose actions expose plaintiff to harm such as would require the defendant to attempt to control the third person's conduct; or a relationship between the defendant and plaintiff requiring defendant to protect the plaintiff from the conduct of others[?] 81 Purdy, 530 N.Y.S.2d at 516, 526 N.E.2d at 7. 82 It cannot mean that a duty will be imposed only where there is privity between the defendant and the victim. See, e.g., Codling, 345 N.Y.S.2d at 461-65, 298 N.E.2d at 622-25 (finding that a defendant can be held liable to a third-party bystander). Nor can it mean that the defendant must actually be able to control the intervenor. See, e.g., Modave, 501 F.2d at 1072 (finding that a negligent doctor can be held liable for the harm caused by another negligent doctor at a different hospital). Rather, the cases in which New York courts have refused to find the requisite relationship are ones in which the defendant did not have much of an opportunity to prevent the harm, see Pulka, 390 N.Y.S.2d at 395-96, 358 N.E.2d at 1021, and in which imposing a duty would expose the defendant to liability beyond sound public policy, Einhorn v. Seeley, 136 A.D.2d 122, 525 N.Y.S.2d 212, 216 (1988); see also Waters, 513 N.Y.S.2d at 358-59, 505 N.E.2d at 924. That is, they are the rather unusual cases where the allowance of liability would create disproportionate risk and reparation allocation, and [would violate] public policies affecting the expansion or limitation of new channels of liability. Palka, 611 N.Y.S.2d at 821, 634 N.E.2d at 193. Thus,  'duty' is not sacrosanct in itself, but is only an expression of the sum total of those considerations of policy which lead the law to say that the plaintiff is entitled to protection. PROSSER AND KEETON, supra, § 53 at 358. 83 What of this case? On the one hand, it seems that the defendant could have substantially reduced the harm caused by these unusually destructive bullets by not marketing them to the general public. And the danger of exposing the defendant to liability beyond sound public policy might not be present here, especially if the New York courts were to conclude that marketing Black Talons to the general public causes more harm than benefit. 20 On the other hand, this case may well involve the expansion ... of new channels of liability, Palka, 611 N.Y.S.2d at 821, 634 N.E.2d at 193, since it involves a criminal intervenor in a case where no direct relationship exists between the injured plaintiff and the defendant. In this respect it is different from Modave (negligent intervenor and direct relationship between plaintiff and defendant), Codling (negligent intervenor and no direct relationship), and Nallan and Stevens (criminal intervenor and direct relationship). 84 Under the circumstances, it is hard to know whether the New York Court of Appeals would find a duty. The fact that the foreseeable intervenor behaved in a criminal, rather than a negligent, manner does not change matters for the purposes of proximate cause. See Kush, 462 N.Y.S.2d at 835, 449 N.E.2d at 729 (noting that, although an intervening intentional or criminal act will generally sever the liability of the original tort-feasor, New York law is clear that [t]hat doctrine has no application when the intentional or criminal intervention of a third party or parties is reasonably foreseeable). Does it do so for purposes of duty? That is a question to which the New York Court of Appeals has given us no answer 21 (although it should be noted that Codling makes not even a hint of a suggestion that the result would have been different if the intervenor had been a criminal). Since the Court of Appeals has neither countenanced nor foreclosed liability in cases involving a criminal intervenor and the absence of a direct relationship, I believe that we are bound to allow that Court to make a policy determination of duty in the instant case. 85 In this respect, the argument that, because it is legal to sell and advertise Black Talons, there can be no liability, is misplaced. As Judge Gabrielli has noted, [t]he common-law duty of reasonable care to those within the ambit of foreseeable danger requires no buttressing by legislative enactment; nor does the absence of such legislation in the present instance exclude the possibility of liability. Pulka, 390 N.Y.S.2d at 398, 358 N.E.2d at 1023-24 (Gabrielli, J., dissenting). There is all of the difference in the world between making something illegal and making it tortious. Making an activity tortious forces the people who derive benefit from it to internalize the costs associated with it, thereby making sure that the activity will only be undertaken if it is desired by enough people to cover its costs. 22 It does not proscribe it altogether. As a result, very different policy considerations go into the decision of whether to forbid something and the decision of whether to find a duty that permits liability for the harm it causes. The fact that the New York legislature has failed to prohibit Black Talons is certainly one factor that the New York Court of Appeals is likely to consider in deciding the policy-laden declaration reserved for Judges that it must make in resolving whether a duty exists. Palka, 611 N.Y.S.2d at 820, 634 N.E.2d at 192. But the weight to be given to this factor is just the sort of thing that only the New York Court of Appeals itself can determine. 23 86 It is precisely because the public policy decision of whether to impose a legal duty is one that the New York Court of Appeals has retained for itself that we should be especially inclined to certify the question to that Court, rather than to endeavor to resolve it ourselves. Certification is particularly warranted when the resolution of [the issue] requires a careful weighing of competing state policies and potentially could affect a large number of people. Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 757 F.2d 614, 615 (5th Cir.1985). We are simply not entitled to make policy for the State of New York. Such is a task for the State's highest tribunal. 24