Revisiting the patterns of negligence: Some ramblings inspired by Robertson

Louisiana Law Review

Volumn 57, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 1119-1132

  Galligan Jr , Thomas C ^a  

^a LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 26444506072     PISSN: 00246859     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. David W. Robertson, Allocating Authority Among Institutional Decision Makers in Louisiana State-Court Negligence and Strict Liability Cases, 57 La. L. Rev. 1079 (1997).
2. See, e.g., Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., Hill v. Lundin & Associates Revisited: Duty Risked to Death? 5-10 (Law Center Publications Inst of the LSU Law Center 1993) [hereinafter Galligan]; Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., A Primer on the Patterns of Negligence, 53 La. L. Rev. 1509, 1510 (1993).
3. See also Frank L. Maraist & Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., Louisiana Tort Law, ch. 3 (1996).
4. There are significant legal issues relating to cause-to-fact, but not for us and not for now. As Robertson notes, none of the common models of negligence differ in their treatment of cause-in-fact. The issues are the same under each model. So we will save those issues for another day. The same is true of damages.
5. David W. Robertson et al., Cases and Materials on Torts 195 (1989).
6. David P. Leonard, The Good Samaritan Rule as a Procedural Device: It is Worth Saving?, 19 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 807, 808 (1986).
7. See Maraist & Galligan, supra note 2, at §§ 5-7 and 5-9.
8. Robertson et al., supra note 4, at 161. The trial judge decides whether the case is governed by the relevant rule.
9. This basic power is no doubt what Cardozo meant in Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R., 162 N.E. 99 (N.Y. 1928), when he said duty is an issue for the fact finder where reasonable minds could disagree.
10. Cf. Lejeune v. Rayne Branch Hospital, 556 So. 2d 559 (La. 1990) (Louisiana Supreme Court reversed over 100 years of jurisprudence denying bystander emotional distress claims; however, both the trial court and court of appeal had refused to follow that jurisprudence thereby foreshadowing the supreme court's decision).
11. 673 So. 2d 585 (La. 1996).
12. Wesley N. Hohfeld, Fundamental Legal Conceptions 65 (Oceana ed. 1978).
13. See Ernest J. Weinrib, The Idea of Private Law 63-66 (1995).
14. Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., Aiding and Altruism: A Mythopsycholegal Analysis, 27 U. Mich. J. L. Ref. 439, 449-59 (1994).
15. This is the focus from which I began my discussion of duty.
16. Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R., 162 N.E. 99, 100 (N.Y. 1928).
17. Id. at 101 (Andrews, J., dissenting).
18. Unless one views the relation as arising between one community member and the rest of the community.
19. Arguably, there is no such thing as a simple "Thou Shall Not" case.
20. For a more coherent analysis, see Weinrib, supra note 12, at 145-70.
21. James A. Henderson, Jr., Expanding the Negligence Concept: Retreat from the Rule of Law, 51 Ind. L.J. 467 (1976).
22. 673 So. 2d 585 (La. 1996).
23. Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., The Tragedy in Torts, 5 Cornell J. of Law and Public Policy 139 (1996).
24. Id. at 151-52.
25. Professor Weinrib argues that deterrence (efficiency) cannot coherently explain the private law of negligence. Weinrib, supra note 12, at 43.
26. 174 Cal. Rptr. 348 (1981).
27. Leslie Bender, A Lawyer's Primer on Feminist Theory and Tort, 38 J. Legal Educ. 3 (1988).
28. Weinrib, supra note 12, at 3-6, 43.
29. Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law 99 (M. Howe ed. 1963).
30. The next three paragraphs originally appeared in Galligan, supra note 2, at 41-42.
31. Baltimore & Ohio Ry. v. Goodman, 275 U.S. 66, 48 S. Ct. 24 (1927).
32. 292 U.S. 98, 54 S. Ct. 580 (1934).
33. Cf. Helling v. Carey, 519 P.2d 981 (1974).
34. For a pre-Green discussion of some related problems, see Galligan, supra note 2, at 40-64.
35. 671 So. 2d 399 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1995), writ denied, 668 So. 2d 366 (1996) ("Result is correct.").
36. 666 So. 2d 341 (La. App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 668 So. 2d 368 (1996) ("The result is correct.").
37. 673 So. 2d 696 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1996). See also Delaune v. Medical Center of Baton Rouge, Inc., 683 So. 2d 859 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1996).
38. 682 So. 2d 946 (La. App. 3d Cir. 1996).
39. I thank my colleague Frank Maraist for discussing the "Green" issues with me and enlightening me. The errors that follow in my discussion of Green and its progeny are all mine.
40. Ambrose v. New Orleans Police Dep't Ambulance Serv., 639 So. 2d 216, 223 (La. 1994) (Lemmon, J., concurring).
41. Id. (Ortique, J., concurring).
42. 639 So. 2d 216 (La. 1994).
43. La. R.S. 40:1235(A)(1) (1992 and Supp. 1997).
44. 685 So. 2d. 1080 (La. 1997).
45. But see Weinrib, supra note 12, at 225, noting jury determinations undertaken in "good faith" are not political.
46. There's even overlap in this little paper about negligence.
47. See Robert Fagles, The Odyssey - Translator's Postscript 490 (1996). Fagles attributes the riding easy in the harness phrase to Robert Frost who uttered it in reference to democracy.