New York Court of Appeals - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court

Supreme court

A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...

in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge

Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals

Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals refers to the position of chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals.The chief judge supervises the seven-judge Court of Appeals...

and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor

Governor of New York

The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...

to 14-year terms. The Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals is also the head of the State's court system's administration, and is thus also known as the Chief Judge of the State of New York. The present Chief Judge is Jonathan Lippman

Jonathan Lippman

Jonathan Lippman is an American jurist and currently Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.-Early life and education:Lippman is a Manhattan native...

. The 1842 Neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

courthouse

Courthouse

A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...

is located in New York's capital, Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

Nomenclature

New York, unlike most other U.S. state

U.S. state

s, calls its trial

Trial court

A trial court or court of first instance is a court in which trials take place. Such courts are said to have original jurisdiction.- In the United States :...

and intermediate appellate courts, the "Supreme Court." New York's Supreme Court is not the court of last resort. This sometimes leads to confusion.

Another source of confusion is the title of the jurists who sit on these courts. In most states and the federal court system, members of the highest court are titled "Justices." In New York, the members of the Court of Appeals are titled "Judges," while those sitting on the bench of the State Supreme Court are titled "Justices."

History

The Court of Appeals was created by the New York State Constitution of 1846 to replace both the Court for the Correction of Errors

New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments

The Court for the Trial of Impeachments, and the Correction of Errors was established by the New York State Constitution of 1777. It consisted then of the Lieutenant Governor of New York , the Chancellor, the justices of the New York Supreme Court and the members of the New York State Senate...

and the Court of Chancery

New York Court of Chancery

The New York Court of Chancery was established during the colonial administration on August 28, 1701, the colonial governor acting as Chancellor. The New York State Constitution of 1777 continued the court but required a lawyer to be appointed Chancellor. It was the court with jurisdiction on cases...

, and had eight members. Four judges were elected by general ballot at the State elections, the other four were chosen annually from among the Supreme Court

New York Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...

justices. The first four judges elected at the special judicial state election

New York special judicial election, 1847

At a special judicial election on June 7, 1847, four judges of the New York Court of Appeals, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, 32 justices of the new New York Supreme Court district benches, county judges, surrogates, districty attorneys and all other judicial officers in the state of New York...

in June 1847 were Freeborn G. Jewett

Freeborn G. Jewett

Freeborn Garrettson Jewett was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from New York and was the first Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.-Life:He moved to Skaneateles in 1815, and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1817...

(to a term of two and a half years), Greene C. Bronson

Greene C. Bronson

Greene Carrier Bronson was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...

(to a term of four and a half years), Charles H. Ruggles

Charles H. Ruggles

Charles Herman Ruggles was an American lawyer and politician who was a U.S...

(to a term of six and a half years), and Addison Gardiner

Addison Gardiner

Addison Gardiner was an American lawyer and politician who was the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1854 to 1855.-Early life and career:...

(to a term of eight and a half years). They took office on July 5, 1847. Afterwards, every two years, one judge was elected in odd-numbered years to an eight-year term. In case of a vacancy, a judge was temporarily appointed by the Governor, and at the next odd-year state election a judge was elected for the remainder of the term. The Chief Judge was always that one of the elected judges who had the shortest remaining term. Besides, the Court had a Clerk

Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals

The Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals was one of the statewide elected officials in New York from 1847 to 1870. He was also ex officio a clerk of the New York Supreme Court. The office was created by the New York State Constitution of 1846...

who was elected to a three-year term.

In 1869

New York state election, 1869

The 1869 New York state election was held on November 2, 1869, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, two Judges of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioners and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all...

, the proposed new State Constitution was rejected by the voters, only the "Judicial Article" which re-organized the New York Court of Appeals was adopted by a small majority, with 247,240 for and 240,442 against it. The Court of Appeals was wholly re-organised, taking effect on July 4, 1870. All sitting judges were legislated out of office, and seven new judges were elected by general ballot at a special election on May 17, 1870

New York special judicial election, 1870

A special judicial election was held on May 17, 1870, to fill the seats on the re-organized New York Court of Appeals.- Background :An Amendment to the New York Constitution, adopted in November 1869, re-organized the Court of Appeals. The first judges were to be elected at a special statewide...

. Democrat Sanford E. Church

Sanford E. Church

Sanford Elias Church was an American lawyer and Democratic politician...

defeated Republican Henry R. Selden

Henry R. Selden

Henry Rogers Selden was an American lawyer and politician. He was Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1857 to 1858. He defended Susan B. Anthony in her 1873 trial for unlawfully voting as a woman.-Life:He was the son of Calvin Selden and Phebe Selden...

for Chief Judge. The tickets for associate judges had only four names each and the voters could cast only four ballots, so that four judges were chosen by the majority and two by the minority. Martin Grover

Martin Grover

Martin Grover was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...

was the only sitting judge who was re-elected. The judges were elected to a 14-year term which most judges did not complete, since the Constitution mandated the retirement of the judges at the end of the calendar year in which they reached the age of 70. In case of a vacancy due to death or resignation, a judge was appointed by the Governor until a successor was chosen at the next State election. To replace retiring or appointed judges, all substitutes were elected to full 14-year terms.

In 1889, a "Second Division" of the Court of Appeals was established temporarily to help to decide the large number of cases. Its seven members were designated by Governor David B. Hill

David B. Hill

David Bennett Hill was an American politician from New York who was the 29th Governor of New York from 1885 to 1891.-Life:...

, chosen from the New York Supreme Court

New York Supreme Court

's General Term benches. Chief Judge was Daniel L. Follett. Among its members were Alton B. Parker

Alton B. Parker

Alton Brooks Parker was an American lawyer, judge and the Democratic nominee for U.S. president in the 1904 elections.-Life:...

and Joseph Potter. The Second Division was continued through 1890. In 1891, the State Constitutional Commission, headed by William B. Hornblower

William B. Hornblower

William Butler Hornblower was a New York jurist who was unsuccessfully nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Grover Cleveland in 1893.-Early life and education:...

drafted an amendment to abolish the Second Division.

A constitutional amendment adopted in November 1899 permitted the Governor, at the request of a majority of the judges of the Court of Appeals, to designate up to four justices of the Supreme Court to serve as associate judges of the Court of Appeals until the Court's calendar was reduced below two hundred cases. This goal was reached only in 1921, and henceforth no more Supreme Court justices were designated under the amendment of 1899 to serve on the Court of Appeals.

Jacob D. Fuchsberg

Jacob D. Fuchsberg

Jacob David Fuchsberg was an American lawyer and politician...

and Lawrence H. Cooke

Lawrence H. Cooke

Lawrence Henry Cooke was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1979 to 1984.-Life:...

were the last judges elected by general ballot at the State election in November 1974. Afterwards the judges have been appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the New York State Senate

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

Jurisdiction

Appeals are taken from the four departments of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division

The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The Appellate Division is composed of four departments .*The First Department covers the Bronx The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate...

to the Court of Appeals; decisions from the Court of Appeals are binding throughout the state.

Unlike the situation in almost all U.S. jurisdictions, in which the jurisdiction's highest court officially admits new lawyers

Admission to the bar in the United States

In the United States, admission to the bar is the granting of permission by a particular court system to a lawyer to practice law in that system. Each U.S. state and similar jurisdiction has its own court system and sets its own rules for bar admission , which can lead to different admission...

to the state's bar, the Court of Appeals has no role in bar admissions. Instead, the Appellate Division is responsible for bar admissions.

Judges

For a complete list of Chief Judges see Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals refers to the position of chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals.The chief judge supervises the seven-judge Court of Appeals...

.
For a list of Associate Judges see Associate Judges of the New York Court of Appeals
Associate Judges of the New York Court of Appeals
This is a list of Associate Judges of the New York Court of Appeals, with their tenure on the court.-Former Associate Judges Serving Before 1870:-Former Associate Judges Serving between 1870 and 1974:-Associate Judges Serving since 1974:-See also:...

.

Name	Appointed	Term expiration	Appointing Governor	Law School Attended
Chief Judge Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals refers to the position of chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals.The chief judge supervises the seven-judge Court of Appeals... Jonathan Lippman Jonathan Lippman Jonathan Lippman is an American jurist and currently Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.-Early life and education:Lippman is a Manhattan native...	2009	2015	David Paterson David Paterson David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting... , Democrat Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	New York University School of Law New York University School of Law The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick is an associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state of New York.-Early life and education:...	1994	2012	Mario Cuomo Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo served as the 52nd Governor of New York from 1983 to 1994, and is the father of Andrew Cuomo, the current governor of New York.-Early life:... , Democrat	St. John's University School of Law St. John's University School of Law St. John's University School of Law is a Roman Catholic law school in Queens, New York City, affiliated with St. John's University. The School of Law was founded in 1925, and confers Juris Doctor degrees and degrees for Master of Laws in Bankruptcy and Master of Laws in U.S. Studies. Over 13,000 St...
Judge Victoria A. Graffeo Victoria A. Graffeo Victoria A. Graffeo is a judge on New York State's Court of Appeals. Judge Graffeo was appointed to the court by Republican Governor George Pataki in 2000 for a 14-year term. Her current term expires in 2014.-Education:...	2000	2014	George Pataki George Pataki George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.- Early life :... , Republican Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...	Albany Law School Albany Law School Albany Law School is an ABA accredited law school based in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 by Amos Dean , Amasa Parker, Ira Harris and others....
Judge Susan Phillips Read Susan Phillips Read Susan Phillips Read is a Republican judge on New York State's Court of Appeals, having been appointed by Republican Governor George Pataki in 2003 for a 14-year term...	2003	2017	George Pataki, Republican	University of Chicago Law School University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School was founded in 1902 as the graduate school of law at the University of Chicago and is among the most prestigious and selective law schools in the world. The U.S. News & World Report currently ranks it fifth among U.S...
Judge Robert S. Smith Robert S. Smith Robert Sherlock Smith is an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court.-Early life and education:Smith was born in New York City in 1944, and grew up in Massachusetts and Connecticut...	2004	2014	George Pataki, Republican	Columbia Law School Columbia Law School Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
Judge Eugene F. Pigott, Jr. Eugene F. Pigott, Jr. Eugene F. Pigott, Jr. is a judge on New York State's Court of Appeals. Judge Pigott was appointed to the court by Republican Governor George Pataki in 2006 for a 14-year term. His current term expires in 2020.-Education:...	2006	2016	George Pataki, Republican	University at Buffalo Law School University at Buffalo Law School The University at Buffalo Law School, the State University of New York is a graduate professional school at the University at Buffalo. It is part of the State University of New York system and is the SUNY system's only law school. U.S...
Judge Theodore J. Jones	2007	2015	Eliot Spitzer Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011... , Democrat	St. Johns University School of Law

Notable Cases

The Court of Appeals has decided some of the most important cases in American jurisprudence. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/history/Cases.htm

Conflict of Laws

Babcock v. Jackson
Babcock v. Jackson
Babcock v. Jackson, 191 N.E.2d 279 is a landmark U.S. case on conflict of laws.A husband and wife from New York went on a car trip with a friend Babcock to Ontario. While in Ontario they had a motor vehicle accident...

(Fuld, J.): holding that the law of the jurisdiction governs that has the strongest interest in the resolution of the particular issue presented.

Statutory Interpretation

Riggs v. Palmer
Riggs v. Palmer
Riggs v. Palmer, 115 N.Y. 506 , is an important New York state civil court case, in which the Court of Appeals of New York issued an 1889 opinion. Riggs was an example of the judiciary using the "social purpose" rule of statutory construction, the process of interpreting and applying...

(Earl, J): used the "social purpose
Social purpose
Within the context of law, social purpose is a scheme of statutory construction declaring that a statute should not be construed in a way that would violate normal societal values or good. Example of cases in which this rule of construction was used include Riggs v. Palmer and Holy Trinity Church...

" rule of statutory construction, the process of interpreting a will.

Contracts

Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 118 N.E. 214 , is a New York state contract case in which the New York Court of Appeals held Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, to a contract that assigned the sole right to market her name to her advertising agent....

(Cardozo
Benjamin N. Cardozo
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was a well-known American lawyer and associate Supreme Court Justice. Cardozo is remembered for his significant influence on the development of American common law in the 20th century, in addition to his modesty, philosophy, and vivid prose style...

, J.): was both a minor cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...

at the time and an influential development in the law of contract consideration
Consideration
Consideration is the central concept in the common law of contracts and is required, in most cases, for a contract to be enforceable. Consideration is the price one pays for another's promise. It can take a number of forms: money, property, a promise, the doing of an act, or even refraining from...

.
Jacob & Youngs v. Kent
Jacob & Youngs v. Kent
Jacob & Young, Inc. v. Kent, 230 N.Y. 239 is a famous contract law case with the majority opinion by Judge Cardozo. It dealt with the matters of material breach and substantial performance.-Facts:...

(Cardozo, J.): held that expectation damages arising from a breach of contract are limited to the diminution of the property's value if the undoing of the breach was an economic waste.
Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.
Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.
Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., was a New York court case in which New York's highest court considered whether permanent damages were an appropriate remedy in lieu of a permanent injunction. The case was one of the first and most influential instances of a court applying permanent damages...

(Bergan
Francis Bergan
Francis Bergan was an American lawyer and politician.-Life:He was the son of Michael Bergan and Mary Bergan. He was educated at the New York State College for Teachers. Then he worked as a court reporter for the Knickerbocker Press, and studied law. He graduated LL.B...

, J.): the court granted an injunction against the cement plant for nuisance, but permitted the plant to pay permanent damages after which the court would vacate the injunction. In essence, the court permitted the plant to pay the net present value of its effects and to continue polluting.

Corporations

Berkey v. Third Avenue Railway Co (Cardozo, J.): held that the Third Avenue Railway Co was not liable for the debts of the subsidiary. It was necessary that the domination of the parent company over the subsidiary was required to be complete, in order for the parent company to be treated as liable for the debts of the subsidiary. It was needed that the subsidiary be merely the alter ego of the parent, or that the subsidiary be thinly capitalized, so as to perpetrate a fraud on the creditors.
Meinhard v. Salmon
Meinhard v. Salmon
Meinhard v. Salmon, 164 N.E. 545 , is a widely cited case in which the New York Court of Appeals held that partners in a business owe fiduciary duties to one another where a business opportunities arises during the course of the partnership...

(Cardozo, J.): held that managing partner in a joint venture had a fiduciary duty to inform the investing partner of an opportunity that would arise after the scheduled termination of the partnership.
Walkovszky v. Carlton
Walkovszky v. Carlton
Walkovszky v. Carlton, 223 N.E.2d 6 , is a leading decision on the conditions under which Courts may pierce the corporate veil. A cab company had shielded themselves from liability by incorporating each cab as its own corporation...

(Fuld
Stanley Fuld
Stanley Howells Fuld was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1967 to 1973.-Life:...

, J.): refused to pierce the veil on account of undercapitalization alone.

Criminal Law

People v. Molineux
People v. Molineux
People v. Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264 , was a landmark decision by the Court of Appeals of New York.-Trial:Roland Burnham Molineux was a chemist and social climber from Brooklyn. He was charged with first degree murder for having caused the death of Katherine J. Adams by poisoning...

(Werner
William E. Werner
William Edward Werner was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Biography:...

, J.): held that using 'evidence' of an unproven previous act of murder against the defendant in a subsequent unrelated trial violated the basic tenet of presumption of innocence, and, therefore, such evidence was inadmissible
People v. Onofre
New York v. Onofre
The People v. Ronald Onofre, 51 N.Y.2d 476, 415 N.E.2d 936, 434 N.Y.S.2d 947 , was a 1981 appeal against New York sodomy laws, decided in the New York Court of Appeals.- Brief summary :...

(Jones
Hugh R. Jones
Hugh Richard Jones was an American lawyer and politician.-Life:...

): held that it is not the function of the penal law to provide for the enforcement of moral or theological values.
People v. Antommarchi
Antommarchi Rights
In the People v. Antommarchi, 80 NY2d 247, the statutory rights of a defendant to be present during any sidebar questioning of a prospective juror concerning his or her impartiality was affirmed by the New York Court of Appeals. Such rights are generally known as the Antommarchi Rights....

(Simons
Richard D. Simons
Richard Duncan Simons is an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Acting Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1992 to 1993-Life:...

, J.): affirming the statutory rights of a defendant to be present during any sidebar questioning of a prospective juror concerning his or her impartiality.
People v. Goetz
People v. Goetz
People v. Goetz, 68 N.Y.2d 96 , was a decision by the New York Court of Appeals written by Chief Judge Sol Wachtler. While the decision does not mention it, this case sparked a media frenzy at the time due to the circumstances of the underlying incident...

(Wachtler
Sol Wachtler
Solomon Wachtler, born , is a lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1993. Known for the remark, "A marriage license should not be viewed as a license for a husband to forcibly rape his wife with impunity" , Wachtler was a key figure in...

, CJ): held that 1) The defense of justification which permits the use of deadly physical force is not a purely subjective standard; the actor must not only have the subjective belief that deadly physical force is necessary, but those beliefs must also be objectively reasonable. 2) The mere appearance of perjured testimony given before the Grand Jury is not sufficient to sustain a dismissal of an indictment.
People v. LaValle
People v. LaValle
People v. LaValle, 3 N.Y.3d 88 , was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of the statute's direction on how the jury was to be instructed...

(G.B Smith
George Bundy Smith
George Bundy Smith is a retired judge in New York State. While he was a law student at Yale University, he was part of the Freedom Ride fromAtlanta, Georgia, to Montgomery, Alabama .-Early life:...

, J.):The current statute of capital punishment in the state of New York was unconstitutional as it violated article one, section six of the state constitution.

Torts

Devlin v. Smith
Devlin v. Smith
Devlin v. Smith, 89 N. Y. 470 was a seminal case decided by the New York Court of Appeals in the area of product liability law.The Court held that a duty to third parties "exists when a defect is such as to render the article in itself imminently dangerous, and serious injury to any person using...

: The Court held that a duty to third parties "exists when a defect is such as to render the article in itself imminently dangerous, and serious injury to any person using it is a natural and probable consequence of its use." The Court further held that scaffolding to be used in the painting of a courthouse was an inherently dangerous article.
Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital
Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital
Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 211 N.Y. 125, 105 N.E. 92 , was a decision issued by the New York Court of Appeals in 1914 which established principles of informed consent and respondeat superior in United States law.-Facts:...

(Cardozo, J.): established principles of informed consent and respondeat superior in United States law
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., 217 N.Y. 382, 111 N.E. 1050 is a famous New York Court of Appeals opinion by Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo which removed the requirement of privity of contract for duty in negligence actions.-Facts:...

(Cardozo, J.): helped signal the end of the law's attachment with privity as a source of duty in products liability. This is the foundational doctrine underlying nearly all modern product liability
Product liability
Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause...

lawsuits.
Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road Co. (Cardozo, J.): was important in the development of the concept of the proximate cause
Proximate cause
In the law, a proximate cause is an event sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury to be held the cause of that injury. There are two types of causation in the law, cause-in-fact and proximate cause. Cause-in-fact is determined by the "but-for" test: but for the action, the result...

in tort law.
Martin v. Herzog
Martin v. Herzog
Martin v. Herzog, Ct. of App. of N.Y., 228 N Y. 164, 126 N.E. 814 , was a New York Court of Appeals case.-Facts:Martin appealed the order of the Appellate Division that reversed a judgment entered after jury trial that found Herzog negligent and P blameless.Martin was driving his buggy on the...

(Cardozo, J.): holding that the unexcused violation of a statutory duty is negligence per se and a jury does not have the power to relax the duty that one traveler on the highway owes under a statute to another on the same highway.
Chysky v. Drake Bros. Co.
Chysky v. Drake Bros. Co.
Chysky v. Drake Bros. Co., 235 N.Y. 468, 139 N.E. 576 , was a seminal products liability case before the New York Court of Appeals. The Court held that a plaintiff cannot recover from a defendant based on implied warranty when she does not have contractual privity with him; thus, a plaintiff cannot...

(McLaughlin
Chester B. McLaughlin
Chester Bentine McLaughlin was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...

, J.): The Court held that a plaintiff cannot recover from a defendant based on implied warranty when she does not have contractual privity with him; thus, a plaintiff cannot recover from a defendant who sold her employer food unfit for consumption, because the defendant's implied warranty extended only to the employer.
Tedla v. Ellman
Tedla v. Ellman
Tedla v. Ellman was a 1939 New York Court of Appeals case that was influential in establishing the bounds of the negligence per se doctrine. Ordinarily, a statutory violation constitutes negligence...

(Lehman
Irving Lehman
Irving Lehman was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1940 until his death in 1945.- Biography:...

, J.): the court held that because the violation occurred in a situation not anticipated by the drafters of the statute and was in keeping with the spirit of the statute, it did not constitute negligence.
Trimarco v. Klein
Trimarco v. Klein
Trimarco v. Klein Ct. of App. of N.Y., 56 N.Y.2d 98, 436 N.E.2d 502 is a 1982 decision by the New York Court of Appeals dealing with the use of custom in determining whether a person acted reasonably given the situation. It is commonly studied in introductory U.S...

(Fuchsberg
Jacob D. Fuchsberg
Jacob David Fuchsberg was an American lawyer and politician...

, J): held that custom and usage is highly relevant evidence related to the reasonable person standard but it does not per se define the scope of negligence.

External links

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