Jones v. Presbyterian Hospital

Saxe, J. (dissenting).

With surgical precision, the majority has today eliminated the historic function of the jury as the fact-finder in a negligence case. In fact, finding the traditional fact-laden concepts of negligence—foreseeability and proximate cause—to be an inconvenience, it concludes, as a matter of law in this premises liability case, that there is simply no reasonably foreseeable hazard present and goes on to nonsuit the plaintiff.

This appeal concerns a claim of a hazard contained in the interior design of a building. Plaintiff asserts that he was caused to fall by an unsafe…