Oregon's "foreseeability standard" means that "if a harm is foreseeable and you have the ability to prevent it, you have a duty," Mr. McDougal said.
In fashioning its test, the court in People Express determined that liability and foreseeability "stand in direct proportion to one another The more particular is the foreseeability that economic loss will be suffered by the plaintiff as a result of defendant's negligence, the more just is it that liability be imposed and recovery allowed". Id. at 116.
The test for remoteness of damage in nuisance is reasonable foreseeability, as established in Cambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather plc; if the defendant was using their land unreasonably and causing a nuisance, the defendant is liable even if they used reasonable care to avoid creating a nuisance.
Thus, the courts have generally recognized that public policy and social considerations, as well as foreseeability, are important factors in determining whether a duty will be held to exist in a particular situation.
Foreseeability is obviously germane, for clearly the ability to foresee risks is important in comparing accident avoidance costs with safety costs...
Past foreseeability is not, however, a prerequisite to liability if the object is market deterrence.
Adopting a test of foreseeability is thus likely to better align copyright law with its underlying purpose and provide courts with a mechanism by which to give effect to copyright's theory of incentives in individual cases —thereby according it more than just rhetorical significance.
Based on the original decision in Rylands, Goff argued that it had always been intended for foreseeability of harm to be a factor, something not previously put into law by the English judiciary.
Instead, it shifted its primary emphasis to the foreseeability of the alleged injury and held that "when it is reasonably foreseeable that extended exposure to dangerous and stressful working conditions will cause injury to the worker, the employer may be held to be liable under the FELA for the employee's resulting injuries". Id., at 97.
However, in that case the issue of foreseeability went to the jury, and the jury found the injury was not foreseeable; on appeal, the court reviewed the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury's finding.
