Court Opinion

ID: 9524818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:57:30.296836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:12:02.890692
License: Public Domain

KIRSCH, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
It is fundamental that the tort of negligence consists of three elements: 1) a duty owed to the plaintiff by the defendant; 2) a breach of that duty by the defendant; and, 3) injury to the plaintiff proximately caused by that breach.
The duty question, however, is not easily answered. As recognized by our supreme court,
The statement that there is or is not a duty begs the essential question — whether the plaintiff’s interests are entitled to legal protection against the defendant’s conduct. It is therefore not surprising to find that *1269the problem of duty is as broad as the whole law of negligence, and that no universal test for it ever has been formulated.... But it should be recognized that “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.
Various factors undoubtedly have been given conscious or unconscious weight, including convenience of administration, capacity of the parties to bear the loss, a policy of preventing future injuries, the moral blame attached to the wrongdoer, and many others. Changing social conditions lead constantly to the recognition of new duties. No better general statement can be made than that the courts will find a duty where, in general, reasonable persons would recognize it and agree that it exists.
Prosser & Keeton on Torts § 53, at 357-59 (5th ed.1984) (footnotes omitted) (quoted in Gariup Construction Co. v. Foster, 519 N.E.2d 1224, 1227 (Ind.1988)).
In response to the difficulties present in a duty analysis, including the vast number of factors available for consideration, our supreme court undertook to formulate a workable approach to making the determination. See Webb v. Jarvis, 575 N.E.2d 992 (Ind.1991). The court in Webb concluded that three factors are to be balanced when deciding whether a duty should be imposed in Indiana negligence cases: 1) the relationship between the parties; 2) the reasonable foreseeability of harm to the person injured; and, 3) public policy concerns. Id. at 995.
The supreme court succeeded in its effort to provide a definitive formula for analyzing the duty element in negligence cases, and succinctly explained why each factor weighed against imposing a duty “under the circumstances” of the case before the court. Id. at 993. Despite the court’s detailed analysis of the three factors in the context of the issue before it, i.e., whether a physician owes a duty to a third person injured by the physician’s patient as a result of treatment, the court’s opinion provided little analytical guidance for applying the factors under different circumstances.
The Webb formula fails to distinguish between the foreseeability component of duty and the foreseeability component of proximate cause. They are different. Foreseeability in the context of proximate cause involves evaluating the particular circumstances of an incident after the incident occurs. According to the American Law Institute, foreseeability for proximate cause purposes is determined from a perspective that is “after the event and looking back from the harm to the actor’s negligent conduct.” Restatement (Second) of Torts § 435(2) (1965). As stated in Indiana, “[a] negligent act or omission is the proximate cause of an injury if the injury is a natural and probable consequence which, in light of the circumstances, should reasonably have been foreseen or anticipated.” City of Portage v. Lindbloom, 655 N.E.2d 84, 86 (Ind.Ct.App.1995) (emphasis added). Thus, when determining proximate cause, foreseeability is determined based on hindsight, and accounts for the circumstances that actually occurred.
By logical deduction, the foreseeability component of the duty analysis must be something different than the foreseeability component of proximate cause. More precisely, it must be a lesser inquiry; otherwise, it would eviscerate the proximate cause element of negligence altogether. If one were required to meet the same or a higher burden of proving foreseeability with respect to duty, then it would be unnecessary to prove foreseeability a second time with respect to proximate cause. Additionally, proximate cause is normally a factual question for the jury, Booker, Inc. v. Morrill, 639 N.E.2d 358, 363 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), while duty is usually a legal question for the court. Wickey v. Sparks, 642 N.E.2d 262, 265 (Ind.Ct.App.1994). As a result, the foreseeability component of proximate cause requires an evaluation of the facts of the actual occurrence, while the foreseeability component of duty requires a more general analysis which looks to the broad type of plaintiff and harm involved, without regard to the facts of the actual occurrence.
*1270Here, Judge Friedlander in his lead opinion concludes that there is no duty because “there is no designated evidence of record to support the inference that the [incident] was foreseeable.” Opinion, p. 1265. This conclusion looks to the facts of the actual occurrence, thus adopting the hindsight approach appropriate to the foreseeability determination under proximate cause, not duty.
In his separate concurring opinion, Judge Rucker states that the duty owed here is that set forth in Muex v. Hindel Bowling Lanes, Inc., 596 N.E.2d 263, 266 (Ind.Ct.App.1992). I agree. I respectfully disagree, however, with his conclusion that there is no breach of that duty as a matter of law. I believe that the question of breach, like that of proximate cause, is a question of fact to be left to the jury.
For such reasons, I respectfully dissent.