Is B Less than PL - Economic Tort Law Analysis and Our Public Schools: An Opportunity Forgone in Beshears v. Unified School District No. 305
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Authors
Meeker, Benjamin Lange
Issue Date
1998
Volume
31
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
INTRODUCTION|In United States v. Carroll Towing, Judge Learned Hand defined, in algebraic terms, the standard for negligence utilized in American jurisprudence. Defining B as the cost of adequate precautions that would prevent the accident from occurring, P as the probability and magnitude of the possible accident, and L as the resulting injury, Judge Learned Hand concluded that a potential injurer is negligent if B was less than the product of P and L (B < PL). Since the 1947 decision of Carroll Towing, the Hand formula has proven to be an accurate explanation of the negligence standard and a valuable tool for courts in their analysis of negligence cases. Recently, however, the Kansas Supreme Court analyzed and decided a negligence case with out using the Hand formula.|In Beshears v. Unified School District No. 305, the Kansas Supreme Court determined that a school district was not negligent for a student's injuries sustained during an off-campus, after school hours fight with another student. In a decision centered on the issue of forseeability, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that it would be unreasonable to conclude that the school district should have foreseen, due to the unrelated disciplinary problems of one of the students involved in the fight, that an altercation would occur after school hours along a rural county road...
Description
Citation
31 Creighton L. Rev. 1413 (1997-1998)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law