Limitation of liability

“ Inasmuch as the owner's liability was not limited by the statutes providing for a limited liability, the pendency of a petition to obtain the benefits of the limitation did not operate to draw into such a proceeding action for a liability which could in no wise be affected by it. ”

“ A further difference is that, while there might be difficulties in construing the general limitation upon actions for penalties as going to the right, this section is so specific that it hardly can mean anything else. We express no opinion as to the earlier act, but we think that this § 554 so definitely deals with the liability sought to be enforced that, upon the principles heretofore established, it must be taken to effect its substance so far as it can, although passed at a different time from the statute by which that liability first was created. We do not go beyone the case before us. ”

“ Justice Field, said: 'The plain answer to this contention is that the liability imposed by the law of 1874 arises only for injuries subsequently committed; it has no application to past injuries, and it cannot be successfully contended that the state may not prescribe the liabilities under which corporations created by its laws shall conduct their business in the future, where no limitation is placed upon its power in this respect by their charters. ”

“ There is a clear difference between the revival of a liability which is unenforceable only because a statute has barred the remedy regardless of the will of the parties, and the extension of a liability beyond the limit expressly agreed upon by the parties. ”

“ The extension of the doctrine of liability without fault to new situations to attain a permissible legislative object is not so novel in the law or so shocking 'to reason or to conscience' as to afford in itself any ground for the contention that it denies due process of law. ”

“ If the wrongful act was done by himself, or was occasioned by his negligence, of course he is liable, and he is equally so, if the act constituting the fault was done by one towards whom he bore the relation of principal, but the liability ceases where the relation of principal entirely ceases to exist, as in case of inevitable accident. ”

“ The theory of remedial liability presents little difficulty. It may be laid down as a general principle, that, whenever the law creates a duty, it should enforce the specific fulfilment of it. The sole condition of the existence of remedial liability is the existence of a legal duty binding upon the defendant and unfulfilled by him. What a man ought to do by a rule of law, he ought to be made to do by the force of law. ”

“ When a man commits a tort, he incurs, by force of the law, a liability to damages, measured by certain rules. When a man makes a contract, he incurs, by force of the law, a liability to damages, unless a certain promised event comes to pass. ”

“ Yet there are exceptional cases in which, for sufficient or insufficient reasons, the law sees fit to break through the rule as to mens rea. It disregards the formal condition of liability, and is satisfied with the material condition alone. It 333holds a man responsible for his acts, independently altogether of any wrongful intention or culpable negligence. Wrongs which are thus independent of mens rea may be distinguished as wrongs of absolute liability. ”

“ Two errors are assigned by the defendants, as follows: 1. That the court, instead of adjudging that the defendants were liable, should have decided that they were exempt from liability, by virtue of the proviso in the policy. 2. ”

“ We have already seen that the term liability has also a wider sense, in which it is the correlative of any legal power or liberty, and not merely of the right of action or prosecution vested in a person wronged. ”

“ The term act is very commonly restricted to intentional acts, but this restriction is inadmissible in law. Intention is not a necessary condition of legal liability, and therefore cannot be an essential element in those acts which produce such liability. ”

“ Indeed, upon general principles of jurisprudence, has it not always been the law that men, forced to reach conclusions, must be kept free from even the possibility of civil, much less criminal liability, for error in the conclusions that they may reach? ”

“ If there is no act, there is no liability. To these nominate torts, each with its own special rules, coming down from the strict law, we added a new ground of liability, namely, negligence, going on a principle, not of duty to answer for aggression, but of duty to answer for injuries resulting from falling short of a legal standard of conduct governing affirmative courses of action. ”

“ Undoubtedly any suit to establish the civil liability imposed by the Act must ultimately seek recovery of the consideration paid less income received or damages if the claimant no longer owns the security. ”

“ The language there is 'that where by law a responsibility is made to arise from the violation of a statute knowingly, proof of something more than negligence is required,-that is, that the violation must in effect be intentional.' Not, therefore, that as a condition of liability there should be proof of something more than recklessness,-not that there should be an intentional violation,-but a violation 'in effect' intentional. ”

“ Liability or responsibility is the bond of necessity that exists between the wrongdoer and the remedy of the wrong. This vinculum juris is not one of mere duty or obligation; it pertains not to the sphere of ought but to that of must. It has its source in the supreme will of the state, vindicating its supremacy by way of physical force in the last resort against the unconforming will of the individual. A man’s liability consists in those things which he must do or suffer, because he has already failed in doing what he ought. It is the ultimatum of the law. ”

“ He then points out that for a neglect of such ordinary care or skill whereby injury happens, the appropriate remedy is an action for negligence. The right to enforce this liability is not to be confined to the immediate buyer. The right, he says, extends to the persons or class of persons for whose use the thing is supplied. It is enough that the goods “would in all probability be used at once ... ”

“ As the example of the fair use doctrine shows, where such countervailing policy considerations exist, the courts stand on relatively firm historical ground in declining to impose liability even where the defendant’s conduct appears to fall within the literal prohibitions of the statute. ”

“ It is a delicate business to base speculations about the purposes or construction of a statute upon the vicissitudes of its passage. Here we have as against the arguments of the claimant the fundamental and necessarily governing consideration that rightly prevailed below. A liability in any case is not to be imposed upon a Government without clear words. ”

“ In this court the condition of the assignee cannot be better than it would be at law in any mode he could take to recover what was due upon the assignment.' The principle is distinctly recognized that the measure of liability upon the instrument secured is the measure of the liability chargeable upon the security. The condition of the assignee cannot be better in law than it is in equity. ”

“ So far, therefore, as the beneficiaries and the agents are different persons, the liability of bodies corporate is an instance of vicarious responsibility, and it is to be justified on the same principles as are applicable to the vicarious liability of a principal for the unauthorised acts of his agent—principles which will be considered by us at a later stage of our enquiry. ”

“ Common-law approaches to causation often require proof of but-for cause as a starting point toward proof of legal cause. The law may require more than but-for cause, for instance proximate cause, before imposing liability. Any standard less than but-for, however, simply represents a decision to impose liability without causation. ”

“ Among the refinements developed by the common law for the purpose of limiting the risk of liability arising from wrongful conduct is the rule that violation of a statutory duty creates liability only when the statute was intended to protect those in the position of the plaintiff from the type of injury in fact incurred. ”

“ As to subordinate officials who have acted in the line of duty it has made the change innocuous by assuming liability. One who is brought before the court as a formal party only will not be heard to object that there has been a denial of due process in enlarging the liability to be borne by some one else. ”

“ Wherever, by either the common law or the statute law of a State, a right of action has become fixed and a legal liability incurred, that liability may be enforced and the right of action pursued in any court which has jurisdiction of such matters and can obtain jurisdiction of the parties. ”

“ The question of liability is always anterior to the question of the measure of the consequences that go with liability. If there is no tort to be redressed, there is no occasion to consider what damage might be recovered if there were a finding of a tort. ”

“ It is very plain that the error which occurs in the case before the court was not a mistake of law, but of fact, or a technical mistake, for the reason that, at the time when that settlement was made, there was an actual existing liability for which the appellant was obliged to account.
Where a party has been subjected by a decree to a contingent and probable liability, he may be compelled to account, with a view to that liability, when the state of things shall happen upon which it may depend. ”

“ Congress has defined the tort liability of the Government as analogous to that of a private person. Traditionally, one function of civil liability for negligence is to supply a sanction to enforce the degree of care suitable to the conditions of contemporary society and appropriate to the circumstances of the case. ”

“ Where an agent or officer of the Government purporting to act on its behalf has been held to be liable for his conduct causing injury to another, the ground of liability has been found to be either that he exceeded his authority or that it was not validly conferred. ”

“ It therefore affords a fair field for a discussion of the general principles of liability for unintentional wrongs at common law. For it can hardly be supposed that a man's responsibility for the consequences of his acts varies as the remedy happens to fall on one side or the other of the penumbra which separates trespass from the action on the case. ”

“ In a case of such importance as that which involves a man's liability or non-liability for his debts after he has given up all his property, he ought not to be deprived of the right of appeal if the law, fairly considered, gives it to him. ”

“ The parties urge that the alternatives in selecting the law to determine liability under this statute are: (1) the internal law of the place where the negligence occurred, or (2) the whole law (including choice-of-law rules) of the place where the negligence occurred, or (3) the internal law of the place where the operative effect of the negligence took place. ”

“ By the settled law of this court, common carriers of goods or possengers cannot, by any contract with their customers, wholly exempt themselves from liability for damages caused by the negligence of themselves or their servants. ”

“ Globe, 42d Cong., 1st Sess., App. 49-50.↑ 'Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any inhabitant of any State * * * to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States * * * shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.'↑ Civil liability has always been drawn from such indefinite standards as reasonable care, a man of ordinary prudence, foreseeability, etc. ”

“ We are prompted, therefore, to seek guidance from the rules of liability which prevail in our society with respect to compensation of persons injured by the improper performance of a legitimate activity by another. Under these rules, a departure from the kind of care society may expect from a reasonable man performing such activity leaves the actor open to a judicial shifting of loss. ”

“ The double liability, in civil and criminal proceedings, finds its counterpart in many instances; as, for example, where an attorney is disbarred or ousted of his right to practise in the court because of conduct for which he may likewise be prosecuted and fined. ”

“ Because of its implications for constitutional law, in view of the increasing frequency of legislation imposing responsibility at one's peril in certain enterprises, in the case of certain dangerous agencies and in situations where it is felt that the loss should be borne by all of us rather than by the luckless individual who chances to be hurt, the basis of tort liability has become a question of moment beyond the immediate law of torts. ”

“ It contains the fundamental provision on which the others turn. It broadly declares that 'the liability . . . for any . . . damage . . . occasioned without the privity or knowledge of such owner . . . ”

“ It is argued that appellees are not claiming the benefit of the Harter act, but rely upon the contract in the bill of lading to exempt them from liability in the absence of affirmative proof of negligence. ”

“ The second contention rests upon the assumption that the court below affirmed a supposed action of the trial court in erroneously instructing the jury that the effect of the employers' liability act was to abolish the doctrine of assumption of risk. ”