MESSAGE FROM ASSOC PROF PAMELA S EVERS ATTORNEY AT LAW This article has been offered by web posting to UNCW students for educational purposes only Articles posted may have been edited for clarity and format by Pamela S Evers More on Palsgraf June 26 2009 8 45 am Posted by Cathleen Kaveny http www commonwealmagazine org blog p 3308 In my recent column I discussed Palsgraf v Long Island RR one of the most famous tort law cases in the United States I got a very interesting email from William Manz a law professor at St John s which I post below The way law and life interact is fascinating I m going to buy his book I read with interest your column in Commonweal which mentioned the Palsgraf case A few years ago LexisNexis published my book The Palsgraf Case Courts Law Society in 1920s New York which treats the case as a historical event and includes the backgrounds of all thirteen judges who heard the case Cardozo s apparent indifference to the situation of Mrs Palsgraf stands in interesting contrast to that of the trial judge Burt Jay Humphrey who denied the railroad s motion to set aside the verdict as against the weight of the evidence stating that the decision was a close call but that he would let the verdict stand Humphrey the son of an upstate New York farmer was widely regarded as a kindly person and it s highly probable that sympathy for Mrs Palsgraf played a part in his decision However overall there was no general correlation between a judge s background and his position on the Palsgraf case For example Judge O Brien who sided with Judge Andrews had spent much of his career with the New York City Corporation Counsel s office whose duties included defending the City against negligence suits In contrast Justice Andrews of the Appellate Division who sided with the LIRR came from New Rochelle a community which had once lost many of its residents in a major train crash caused by a railroad s negligence Finally while researching the book I contacted a retired attorney who had once been chief counsel for the Long Island Railroad who provided useful insights on the practices of the LIRR s legal department e g if there was any settlement offer made to Mrs Palsgraf it would have been minuscule He was certain that the railroad would never have attempted to collect the costs awarded to it by Cardozo s decision William H Manz St John s University School of Law Queens NY Vol 16 No 10 October 2006 pp 836 838 THE PALSGRAF CASE COURTS LAW AND SOCIETY IN 1920S NEW YORK by William H Manz Conklin NY LexisNexis Matthew Bender 2005 206pp Paperbound 30 00 ISBN 1820563722 Reviewed by Charles McCardell Attorney Law Librarian West Chester PA Email chasm1 at comcast net William H Manz holds degrees in law J D St John s University School of Law and library science M L S Long Island University and as of the publication date holds the position of Senior Research Librarian St John s University School of Law As a law school librarian Manz has doubtlessly heard a multitude of students struggling over the facts issues holding and rationale in the 1928 PALSGRAF case Manz admits that PALSGRAF has been scrutinized for decades by academics with the latest tort doctrine to espouse He quickly points to the major questions he proposes to address in the Introduction the apparently bizarre fact pattern the misleading impressions regarding the contending parties the lives and careers of the members of the bench and bar involved with the case and finally the participants within the context of their times It is our good fortune that Manz became sufficiently obsessed with PALSGRAF to the point of writing this extremely interesting Brandeis brief of the case It should be noted that Manz regularly rides the Long Island Rail Road one can only presume more alert and cautious thanks to Mrs Palsgraf s experience almost 80 years ago Remember the case In Chapter 2 The Parties Manz introduces the plaintiff and defendant For those attorneys having a senior moment and those non attorneys blessed with never having to struggle through Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo s opinion what follows is a brief condensation of Manz s portrait of the plaintiff and her experience Mrs Lena Palsgraf nee Spilger was separated from her dead beat husband living on approximately 10 50 per week about 45 of a fair standard of living in 1920s Brooklyn when she decided to take her two daughters Elizabeth 15 years old and Lillian 12 years old to Rockaway Beach for a Sunday outing Two or three men attempted to board a moving train while Mrs Palsgraf and family awaited their train One of the men dropped a package which caused an explosion on the platform causing a scale to fall striking Mrs Palsgraf on the arm hip and thigh Although Mrs Palsgraf and her daughters had been able to walk to the BMT elevated near their home and travel to the Long Island Railroad LIRR station where the injury occurred Mrs Palsgraf found walking difficult after being struck by the scale She took a taxi home after the police and an ambulance doctor assisted her A railroad doctor visited Mrs Palsgraf the day after the accident a former employee interviewed by Manz suggested that the doctor was probably a claims agent because the LIRR was too parsimonious to employ a 837 physician Presumably an unacceptable settlement offer or none at all was forthcoming A neighborhood doctor treated Mrs Palsgraf for a nervous condition over the next two months With no settlement from the LIRR and unable to continue earning her meager wages Mrs Palsgraf sought legal advice regarding suing the LIRR Chapter 3 introduces the attorneys for both parties Complaints about the explosion of lawyers and the differences between graduates of full time day law schools and those lawyers who attended part time night schools was noted in a 1921 major report p 13 Dean of the Columbia Law School in 1922 Harlan F Stone decried the increasing numbers of men of mediocre skill in the profession and stressed the duty of law schools to dissuade the man of ordinary ability from starting the study of law p 13 Some argued that college preparation should be required since many candidates knew little of literature history and American traditions p 14 Critics of the times contended that the practice of ambulance chasing was the result of an oversupply of new lawyers with immigrant backgrounds Catholics and Jews p 15 The almost 50 pages of 814 detailed Endnotes for the eleven chapters following the 123 pages of text reflect the
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