Palsgraf v Long Island Railroad Co, 248 NY 339 (1928)
Tort; Negligence; the duty of care; the foreseeability of harm.
Facts: Two guards who were employed by a railway company at a railway station, noticed a passenger running to catch a train that was leaving the station. The guards tried to help the passenger board the train but while doing so, one of the guards bumped a small parcel wrapped in newspaper that the passenger was holding under his arm. Unknown to the guard, the unlabelled package contained fireworks and when it fell to the ground, it exploded. The explosion caused some scales at the other end of the platform to fall over and strike a woman standing on the plaftorm, injuring her. The injured woman sued the railway company, claiming that the guards had owed her a duty of care.
Issue: Was the possibility of harm to persons on the far end of the platform foreseeable?
Decision: The court held that in these circumstances it was not foreseeable that the guard's carelessness in bumping the parcel might cause harm to people standing far away at the other end of the platform.
Reason: Cardozo CJ said (at 341):
"The conduct of the defendant's guard, if a wrong in its relation to the holder of the package, was not a wrong in its relation to the plaintiff, standing far away. Relatively to her it was not negligence at all. Nothing in the situation gave notice that the falling package had in it the potency of peril to persons thus removed."