Alvarez v. Jacmar Pacific Pizza Corp.

EPSTEIN, J., Dissenting.

This is a wrongful death case, tried to a jury. It reaches us after defendants’ motion for nonsuit was granted at the close of plaintiffs’ case-in-chief. The motion was granted on the sole ground that, as a matter of law, decedent’s death was unforeseeable and, hence, defendants owed no duty to the decedent. The majority’s affirmance is based on that ground, and one other: that, as a matter of law, there was no causal nexus between the defendants’ acts (and failure to act) and the death.

As I shall explain, I believe the trial court and the majority err in their…