Halloween...the Palsgraf curse

Sometimes I don't want to look back in my textbook to find old cases that are referenced again. So I googled Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad. This article is about how generations of Palsgrafs have had unfortunate incidents and "didn't get what they deserved". Grandmother Helen Palsgraf was injured when when a Railroad attendant helped a man on to the train and in the process negligently allowed a slim brown paper package to fall on to the tracks. The package turned out to be fireworks which exploded, the shock of which caused a "scale" (bathroom scale? roof tile?) to fall on Helen. Alternatively, she may have been stampeded. But Cardozo found the Railroad was not liable for helping the man onto the train. And Helen didn't get what she deserved, thus beginning the Palsgraf curse.....ladders falling, broken bones, ping-pong tables running amok, infections, amputations, broken sidewalks jumping up and hurting people....Spooky! read on:

If a curse does exist, at least it seems to include a touch of ironic humor.

For many years, William Jr. [Palsgraf] worked as a truck driver for, among others, Petroleum Heat and Power.

One night in 1968, he took to the road in the middle of an ice storm, carrying a tanker full of oil for P.H.&P.

"I had to go down a hill by the [Long Island Expressway] and the whole hill was ice," he said in an interview. He made a turn and "the minute I made the turn, I spun around like a cyclone, went over the sidewall and through the fence."

His truck hung over the edge of a cliff, tottering precariously. Only one thing kept the truckload of oil tethered to the land, saving the life of Ms. Palsgraf's closest living relative and preserving the family, its name and its curse for at least one more generation: The tanker's wheels were caught on a track for, of all things, the Long Island Railroad.