Court Opinion

ID: 9657546
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:30:07.732762+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:05:49.495102
License: Public Domain

BreNNAN, J.
(concurring). I have signed Justice Kelly’s opinion. This concurrence may he regarded as a dissent from the concurrence of Justice Black.
For myself, I regard the doctrine of prospective overrulement to he blatant judicial usurpation of the legislative power. I can think of no case where it is “inexpedient” to apply the correct rule of law' to the case at hand.
The idea of shifting the burden of proof in a supermarket slip-and-fall case is just another nail in the coffin of commondaw tort jurisprudence. It would advance the day when liability- without fault becomes a reality. If courts are going to legislate mandatory shoppers’ compensation, we ought at least to have the common courtesy to hold public hearings before the measure is passed to third reading.