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A platform guard rushes to give him
a helpful push from behind.
That push ensures that he makes it onto the train,
but it also knocks the box out of his arms.
So, what's in the box?
What's in the box, Harry?
(tense music) (woman screams)
When are you responsible for an accident?
Imagine you're driving along and you stop at a red light.
A car then rear-ends you and sends you
flying into the car in front of you.
Who's responsible?
If you hadn't been there,
there wouldn't have been an accident.
But does that put you on the hook, legally speaking?
If you knock down one domino,
are you responsible for all of the other dominoes falling?
When a butterfly flaps its wings,
the effects echo outward like ripples on a pond,
and no one knows where the effects will stop.
At what point, though, do we say that
the butterfly caused the harm?
At what point do we say that the downstream ripples
are too attenuated to pin it on the butterfly?
When someone's sloppy mistake puts your life
and limb at risk, who must pay?
What duty do we owe each other?
That's the question that we must answer in
The Case of Poor Mrs. Palsgraf,
she never saw it coming. (train horn honks)
Submitted for your adjudication,
our story begins innocently enough,
with a family trip to the beach.
The year is 1924, the place, Brooklyn, New York.
On a hot and muggy August morning,
Helen Palsgraf prepares to take her two daughters
on a long-awaited trip to Rockaway Beach.
The girls have been on their very best behavior
for weeks, helping around the house,
working tirelessly at their jobs
in the nearby clothing factory.
They diligently counted down the days to today.
They earned this break from the tiresome monotony
of the daily grind.
Mrs. Palsgraf too worked hard to have this rare day off.
She works two full-time jobs doing back-breaking work
both as a housekeeper and as a janitor.
She rarely sleeps, instead painstakingly saving
every penny earned to scrape just enough together
to be able to afford the train fare
and take the girls out for one summer day.
It was meant to be a respite,
a breath of fresh air in every sense.
(thunder cracks)
But fate had other plans.
Having meticulously packed their bags,
the Palsgraf family slowly makes the trek
over to the Atlantic Avenue train station.
At the ticket booth, Mrs. Palsgraf pauses briefly,
considering the expense of the tickets.
She looks down at her children's filthy
but beaming faces, their smiles are well worth it.
She dutifully hands over her hard-earned wages
and purchases three tickets on the Long Island Railroad.
Destination, Rockaway Beach. (cash register dings)
The women make their way down to the train platform.
As they patiently stand in the sweltering heat
waiting for their train to arrive,
they daydream about the sand, the surf,
and the fresh air that await them.
Little did they know, (dramatic music)
they would never reach their destination.
(screaming)
Meanwhile, several blocks away,
a man is abruptly awoken by the thump, thump, thump
of his landlord's fist pounding on his door.
We'll call this man Hot Mess Harry.
Harry starts this morning like most mornings,
running two steps behind, he has overslept.
He is three months late on the rent
and knows that his landlord is inching ever-closer
to fulfilling his frequent promise
to break his legs if he doesn't come up with the money soon,
and just in case he has momentarily forgotten,
the landlord reiterates the point,
barking through the door to come out
and that he knows he's in there.
Harry scoops up his rumpled clothes
from off the floor and throws them on
as quickly and quietly as possible.
He hops around the room, shoving his feet into his shoes
while trying to simultaneously button his shirt.
He turns, raises the bedroom window,
and prepares to sneak out down the fire escape.
But he pauses and doubles back to grab a large box
before slinking out through the back.
Box in hand, Harry now tears down the street
and into the train station,
leaving a path of chaos and destruction in his wake.
(man yells)
Come hell or high water, he has to make it to the train.
But Harry pauses for a moment at the bottom of the stairs
leading up to the train platform, panting.
He swears to himself, wishing that he weren't being
slowed down by the weight of this inconvenient parcel.
It's heavy, but he's got to get rid of that damn box.
Just then, he catches a glimpse of the train.
It's already here, he picks up the pace,
throwing caution and innocent bystanders into the wind
as he sprints up the stairs.
The train crew is making their final preparations
to leave the the station, this is gonna be a close one.
He reaches for the train just as the doors begin closing.
The crew pity him, but time and the Long Island Railroad
wait for no man. (man yells)
Harry makes a desperate leap onto the now-moving train.
A platform guard rushes to give him
a helpful push from behind.
That push ensures that he makes it onto the train,
but it also knocks the box out of his arms.
So, what's in the box?
What's in the box, Harry?
Fireworks, Legal Eagles, the box is chock full of fireworks,
and what happens next depends on who you ask.
Scenario A, in the first scenario,
the train employee's push knocks the box
out of Harry's arms and into the air.
For a moment, it seems to float, suspended in midair,
but then it begins its inevitable descent downward,
taking an unlucky bounce off the very edge of the platform.
It ricochets off and bounces again,
this time off the side of the train itself
and then continues bobbling its way down
onto the train track cavity itself,
where it eventually settles into its final
resting place, lodged between the two track beams,
inches from the train wheels,
which have begun to move out of the station.
At this point, it's worth noting a piece of metal
on the undercarriage of the train's caboose,
which loosened over the years of wear and tear,
juts out ever so slightly to one side,
perfectly aligned on a collision course with the box.
This metal occasionally scrapes against the tracks,
creating a burst of screeching sparks when it does,
and just as the caboose passes near the box,
the metal meets the track again.
The ensuing sparks set off just one firework at first.
(firework booms)
Then another, until like popcorn,
all of the fireworks go off in rapid succession.
The explosion causes a stampede
as panicked passengers push and shove
their way towards the exits.
Luggage is left behind, knocked over,
burst open, and trampled on.
Undershirts, nightgowns, toiletries
are strewn about the floor.
People shout, trying to find their loved ones
in the thick, smoky fog.
In the middle of it all,
Mrs. Palsgraf blindly searches for her way out.
She cannot see the man fumbling past her,
who himself unable to see, knocks into an enormous
floor scale at just the right angle
to cause the scale to topple over,
and it comes down right on top of poor Mrs. Palsgraf.
That's right, folks, an industrial, heavy brass,
guess-your-weight old-timey scale,
though not so old-timey for Mrs. Palsgraf.
The scale is coin-operated and those coins now begin to
slowly trickle out, plunking her right on top of her head
as it slowly crushes her with all of its mighty weight.
Or the second scenario, maybe it happened like this.
The train employee's push knocks the box
out of Harry's arms.
The box, a veritable powder keg immediately explodes
upon impact with the ground.
The force of the explosion is so powerful
that it knocks the scale next to Mrs. Palsgraf over
and it falls right on top of her with its mighty weight.
Either way, these particular facts are unimportant.
The point is that Mrs. Palsgraf is badly hurt.
Her daughters rush to her aid.
Still pinned under the crushing weight of the scale,
she meekly tells them that she's very sorry,
but she doesn't think she'll be able
to join them at the beach today.
She's in shock and denial,
unable to yet comprehend that her life
has been irrevocably changed.
She suffers bruises all over her body
and experiences chronic headaches.
Doctors will later diagnose her with traumatic hysteria.
She develops a stammer and becomes depressed.
She is no longer able to work
and must give up both of her jobs.
She requires expensive medicines and round-the-clock care.
Her bones eventually heal,
but Mrs. Palsgraf is never quite the same.
When she is lucid enough to recount the events
of that fateful August day,
and helplessly watch the medical bills pile up,
she is above all else, angry.
But this is America, and someone has to pay
for what happened to her. (cash register dings)
But what about Hot Mess Harry?
While clearly he's at fault here
and should be liable for the damages,
that's not what this story is about.
Harry never paid Mrs. Palsgraf a dime for two reasons.
One, he didn't have any money,
and two, he was never seen or heard from again.
And even if Mrs. Palsgraf were able to track him down
and he were served with a lawsuit,
he would have been useless to her.
He's what we call judgment-proof,
meaning that he wouldn't have had the funds
to cover a judgment against him in any case.
This is often a sad reality about litigation,
and with nowhere else to turn,
Mrs. Palsgraf sues the Long Island Railroad Company.
She claims that the railroad was negligent
when its employee pushed Harry onto the train,
and although Harry is primarily at fault,
she was also harmed by the negligence
of the railroad company.
At trial, a jury awards her $6,000 in damages,
around $900,000 by today's standards,
but the railroad appeals.
Mrs. Palsgraf wins again.
And finally, the case makes its way all the way up
to New York's highest court, the court of appeals.
The issue on the table,
was the Long Island Railroad Company negligent
towards Mrs. Palsgraf?
Could they have foreseen that someone
would bring fireworks on the train?
In other words, what exactly is negligence?
We now turn to Albany,
where courtroom proceedings are just getting underway.
(typewriter clicks) (tense music)
- [Judge] This court has had the opportunity to review
the record, are counselors really for oral argument?
- [William] Yes, your Honor, William McNamara representing
the appellants, the Long Island Railroad Company.
- [Matthew] Matthew Wood, sir,
representing the appellee, Mrs. Helen Palsgraf.
- [Judge] Okay then gentlemen, let's get started.
- [William] Thank you and may it please the court,
your Honors, my client, the Long Island Railroad,
has been accused of negligence toward Helen Palsgraf
when one of its employees helped a passenger onto his train
by giving him a supportive nudge aboard.
There was no negligence here.
How could we possibly expect that employee
to know that the box in the passenger's arms
was packed with fireworks?
There was no signage or any other sort of indication
that the box contained dangerous contents.
There was simply no way for a reasonable person
to know that if this particular box were dropped,
it would explode; my client was not negligent.
On the contrary, the employee was doing the right thing.
Don't we want to live in a society
in which people feel able to help each other,
rather than second guess every move they make
in fear of future liability?
The passenger is the only one to blame here.
- [Matthew] Your Honors,
the railroad was clearly negligent here.
The employee pushed the man onto the train far too hard.
His carelessness forced the passenger to drop the box,
which directly caused the explosion
that has devastated poor Mrs. Palsgraf.
If not for the railroad's actions,
Mrs. Palsgraf would not have been injured.
It's a logical certainty.
- [Judge] Mr. McNamara, let's assume that
the railroad employee was in fact negligent here
with regard to the passenger.
Would Mrs. Palsgraf be entitled to damages?
- [William] Your Honors, even if we accept
that there could have been negligence
in how the employee helped the passenger board the train,
that remains a matter exclusively between
the passenger and my client.
Mrs. Palsgraf just has nothing to do with it.
- [Matthew] Your Honors, my client
has everything to do with it.
She did everything right that fateful August day.
She was a paying customer on the Long Island Railroad
who obeyed all the rules, minded her business,
and waited exactly where the railroad told her.
- [Judge] And what exactly would you suggest
that the railroad owes to paying customers, counselor?
- [Matthew] The railroad owes Mrs. Palsgraf
and all of its customers a duty of care,
and it breached that duty when its employee's negligence
created an unsafe environment,
causing my client's harrowing injury.
If an injury can be traced back to a wrongful act
and there are no intervening events,
that is sufficient to establish liability.
- [William] But if we hold the railroad negligent
to Mrs. Palsgraf, where do we draw the line?
We simply cannot hold my client responsible
for the consequences of all actions,
no matter how extraordinary or bizarre,
that impact customers of the railroad.
The duty of care must be limited to those
who are reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.
- [Judge] Counselor, don't you think that
Mrs. Palsgraf's injuries were reasonably foreseeable?
- [William] Though regrettable,
her injures were not foreseeable.
Who could know that the box would explode upon falling,
and that that explosion would knock over a scale
all the way across the platform,
and that scale would somehow topple on top of her?
The chain of events here is too tenuous.
- [Matthew] But my client was foreseeable, your Honor,
she was in the zone of foreseeable danger.
Mrs. Palsgraf's close physical proximity
to the careless act matters here.
She was waiting on the designated platform
for her imminent train,
about 10 feet from the site of the explosion.
She was clearly at risk of direct physical impact.
- [Judge] Mr. McNamara, what do you say to that?
- [William] Even if we accept the zone of danger test,
Mrs. Palsgraf was still too far away from the explosion
to have a successful negligence claim under that standard.
It is definitely not reasonably foreseeable
that a scale all the way on the other end of the station
could fall on top of her as a result
of one employee's careless push.
There are just too many variables
in between the two occurrences.
- [Judge] Thank you, gentlemen, this matter is adjourned.
(typewriter clicks)
(tense music)
- Chief judge and future Supreme Court Justice Cardozo
wrote the decision of the New York court of appeals
and what is considered by many to be the single most
influential torts case in all of American jurisprudence.
Do you have what it takes to think
like a future Supreme Court justice?
Pause this video, put on your favorite black robe,
and grab your gavel and let me know in the comments
how you think this case was decided, I'll wait.
(typewriter clicks) (tense music)
Cardozo sided with the railroad company and found that
they did not have a duty of care to Mrs. Palsgraf.
Her injuries were not reasonably foreseeable
because the explosive box didn't appear to be dangerous
and a reasonable person would not have foreseen
that a scale would topple on top of Mrs. Palsgraf
as a result of the box falling and exploding.
Not only was her judgment reversed,
but Mrs. Palsgraf actually ended up owing
the Long Island Railroad Company $560
to cover their attorney's fees,
the equivalent of a year's worth of her wages.
This case is probably the most famous
American tort case in all of jurisprudence.
Its legacy, however, has eroded over time.
The dissent in this case found that
because there was little to no gap in time or space
between the train employee's negligence
and Mrs. Palsgraf's injuries, the injuries were
a natural consequence of the series of events that followed.
And while some states still follow Cardozo's approach
and find no liability for an unforeseeable plaintiff,
most states now agree with the dissent
and focus on the proximity in time and space
to a negligence in a plaintiff's injuries.
This true crime series is a huge experiment
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because it takes about 10 times longer
than all of my other normal videos.
This is a huge experiment because sometimes
publishing on YouTube is risky.
This video, in fact, probably got demonetized,
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It's called Nebula, and we're thrilled
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Nebula is a place where creators
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that probably wouldn't work on YouTube.
In fact, if you liked this episode of The Case Of,
you can find an extended version that I actually
can't show on YouTube, it's Legal Eagle,
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And when I say Nebula is built by creators for creators,
I really mean it.
Nebula features lots of YouTube's top educational creators
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We get to collaborate in ways that
wouldn't really work on YouTube.
For example, the Nebula exclusive series
called Working Titles where every episode,
a different creator breaks down
their favorite TV intro sequence.
Recently Thomas Frank did Gravity Falls,
Now You See It covered The Simpsons,
and I'll be doing Law & Order very, very soon.
(gavel bangs)
Seriously, we worked really hard on this
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So what do you think, do you agree with my analysis?
Leave your objections in the comments,
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So click on this playlist and I'll see you in court.