Opinion ID: 1372176
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The test to be applied.

Text: According to the opinion by Justice Peterson: There must be prospectively a `recognizable high degree risk of harm' from the future misconduct of the third person, before liability ensues. In support of that test he quotes from Restatement of Torts (Second) § 302B, comment e. His opinion recognizes, however, in quoting from comment a under § 449 that the actor becomes negligent in such a case where, among other things, his conduct has created or increased the risk of harm through the misconduct of a third person. Restatement rules and comments are not the law of Oregon, however, unless and until they have been approved and adopted by this court as the law of this state. This court, in an opinion by O'Connell, J., in Stewart v. Jefferson Plywood, supra , stated the test to be applied in such cases (255 Or. at 609-610, 469 P.2d 783, 786) in somewhat different terms. As previously noted, this court stated in that case that the foreseeability test for negligence in such cases is whether an ordinary reasonable person, ought reasonably to foresee that he will expose another to an unreasonable risk of harm  and that this test is applicable to harms  of the general kind to be anticipated from the conduct  and to situations in which the person harmed is one of the general class threatened. To the same effect, see Allen v. Shiroma/Leathers, supra, 266 Or. at 571-72, 514 P.2d 545, 547. More recently, in Connolly v. Bressler, 283 Or. 265, 268, 583 P.2d 540, 542 (1978), we again said that: Resolution of the question is usually determined by whether the harm was `foreseeable,' i.e., whether the actual harm caused was of the general kind to be anticipated from the blameworthy act. Stewart v. Jefferson Plywood Co., 255 Or. 603, 606-10, 469 P.2d 783 (1970). If it was, liability results even though the particular manner of the injury could not be anticipated.    The bizarre manner of the occurrence does not prevent the accident from falling into the general category of risk reasonably to be anticipated.    (Emphasis added)