MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. - New York, 1916 (111 N.E. 1050)
People ex rel. Durham Realty Corp. v. LaFetra – New York, 1921 (130 N.E. 601)
| 1916 Buick - courtesy New York Public Library "If to the element of danger there is added knowledge that the [product] will be used by persons other than the purchaser ... then, irrespective of contract, the manufacturer of this thing of danger is under a duty to make it carefully. ... We have put aside the notion that the duty to safeguard life and limb, when the consequences of negligence may be foreseen, grows out of contract and nothing else." - Justice Benjamin Cardozo, in MacPherson Rent strike, New York City (1919) - courtesy Wikimedia Commons “The Legislature has found that … those who own seek the uttermost farthing from those who choose to live in New York and pay for the privilege rather than go elsewhere; and that profiteering and oppression have become general. It is with this condition, and not with economic theory, that the state has to deal in the existing emergency. … A historical justification of liberty of contract between landlord and tenant is not a demonstration that the system must survive every exigency … The law of each age is ultimately what that age thinks should be the law.” – Justice Cuthbert Pound, in Durham Realty |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 2. MID-ATLANTIC LEGAL HISTORY > 2.5. The Mid-Atlantic States: The Progressive Era and Its Aftermath (1900-1925) > 2.5.1. The Mid-Atlantic States (1900-1925): Progressivism and Worker Safety >