Citation

Fegan HJ. Georgetown Law J. 1934; 22: 750.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1934, Georgetown Law Journal Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Precedents drawn from the days of travel by stage coach, Judge Cardozo tells us, do not fit the conditions of travel today. He was discussing the liability of the manufacturer for defects in an automobile; he might well have been speaking of the regulation of automobile traffic. Not only has the automobile revolutionized the business and the pleasure of the civilized world, but the control of its use gives rise to legal problems as difficult as any this generation has had to face. Much of the difficulty arises because precedents derived from the past seem to fail us in the present. The volume of litigation involving auto- mobile accidents is growing with enormous rapidity. The suddenness with which the injury is inflicted; the equal swiftness with which the culprit disappears; the delay in getting to trial, and the difficulties of the plaintiff in proving his case; the inadequacy of verdicts; the financial irresponsibility of many car drivers;--all, taken together, support a rapidly growing sentiment that the only remedy the law has been able to work out--the personal injury action-has signally failed.