Assume you are the judge in the Palsgraf case

Question

a. Analyze the fact situation in terms of the elements that need to be proved in a negligence case.
b. Why did Mrs. Palsgraf lose the case? What in the fact situation makes it difficult to establish a prima facie case of negligence?

Answer 1

a. The elements of a negligence case are: breach of a duty of care, factual cause, proximate cause, and harm. The railroad porter was assisting a passenger to board the train. That in itself was not a breach of the railroad's duty to Mrs. Palsgraf. The employee had no way of knowing that the passenger was carrying explosives in his package. The harm to Mrs. Palsgraf was not foreseeable from the porter's action in assisting the men onto the train. Since the harm was not foreseeable, it was not a proximate cause of the harm. Mrs. Palsgraf was injured and may have had a case against the man carrying the package, but that did not automatically mean that she had a strong case against the railroad.
b. Mrs. Palsgraf lost because her injury was not a foreseeable result of the action of the railroad personnel. It is difficult to establish a prima facie case of negligence against the railroad, because the act of the railroad in helping a passenger to board the train was a remote cause of the injury which Mrs. Palsgraf sustained.