Holmes endorsed a lose-where-it-falls baseline in tort liability

Evidence

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes summed it up, “The general principle of our law is that loss from accident must lie where it falls, and that principle is not affected by the fact that a human being is the instrument of misfortune.” — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3405

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nineteenth-century courts shifted tort law toward negligence to favor industrial growth — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3405; State common-law rulings, not statutes, govern most tort liability — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3398