Whose Fault Is It Anyhow?

Americans seem to be encouraged to blame somebody else for anything bad that happens to them, no matter how tenuous the connection. Whether we’re overweight, ill-tempered or stressed out, “it’s not your fault,” pop psychologists and broadcast commercials console us. The California Supreme Court has been asked to take up the related issue of the role of personal responsibility versus negligence in liability suits. The issue should be of concern to anyone who works or plays in this state.

The justices are expected to decide this summer if defendants--often employers or recreational businesses--may escape financial responsibility because the people who sued--often workers or people injured during recreational activity--assumed risks that led to their injuries.

The court will look at the case of Larry C. Ford, who was seriously injured when he struck an overhanging tree limb while water-skiing backward in a narrow channel in the Sacramento River delta. Ford sued the driver of the boat that was towing him for negligence; the suit was dismissed on the ground that Ford had implicitly assumed the risk of injury. The high court’s coming decision on the degree of fault in that case, which has been appealed, will likely have effects on other cases. In one, a man who lost an eye after being hit by a throw in a slow-pitch softball game is suing the second baseman who threw the ball; in another case, a woman who suffered a broken collarbone when she was bucked off a horse is suing a resort, charging that employees failed to warn her the horse had thrown another rider.

The last two cases point out the legal tightrope the justices must walk in determining who is at fault in an injury. On the basis of these descriptions, many might sympathize with the second baseman who is being sued. But in the second example, many might sympathize with the woman who was thrown by the horse.

That’s why the court must draw its conclusions carefully, and narrowly. No one wants to encourage people to shirk personal responsibility and sue any more than they already do now, that’s for sure. But no one wants a state where real negligence goes unchallenged.