The Death of Palsgraf: A Comment on the Current Status of the Duty Concept in California

Authors

Arthur N. Buck

Library of Congress Authority File

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79122466

Document Type

Comments

Abstract

The California courts are in the forefront of the development of modern tort law into a pro-plaintiff, pro-recovery system. This Comment analyzes the evolution of the duty concept in California tort law. Duty has become a plaintiff-oriented doctrine. Duty has reduced the importance of proximate cause in the negligence analysis. Pro-defendant aspects of duty have atrophied, replaced by an analysis based primarily on foreeseability. Duty, traditionally decided by the trial judge as a threshold question of law, has in many recent cases been decided, in effect, by the jury as a question of fact.

Recommended Citation

Arthur N. Buck, The Death of Palsgraf: A Comment on the Current Status of the Duty Concept in California, 16 San Diego L. Rev. 793 (1979).
Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol16/iss4/5