Foreseeability (California law), Negligence, Tort:
California law places greater weight on the element of foreseeability in
the duty analysis than does Maryland law. Indeed, this state treats
foreseeability as “the most important factor” (Kesner, 1 Cal.5th at p.
1145), and we do not narrowly circumscribe the kinds of relationships that must
exist between the plaintiff and the defendant as a predicate to imposing a duty
on the defendant to prevent injuries arising from its own conduct. (Id.
at p. 1163; see Randi W., 14 Cal.4th at p. 1077 [one who negligently
provides false information to another can owe a duty of care to a third person
“who did not receive the information and who has no special relationship with
the provider”].)
We therefore do not find persuasive those out-of-state cases discounting
the role of foreseeability (see, e.g., Huck v. Wyeth, Inc., 850
N.W.2d at p. 376 (plur. opn. of Waterman, J.) [“‘foreseeability should not enter into the
duty calculus’”]) or requiring the existence of a specific type of
relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant (see, e.g., Moretti v. Wyeth, Inc. (9th
Cir. 2014) 579 Fed. Appx. 563, 564 [construing negligent misrepresentation, under
Nevada law, to “‘require, at a minimum, some form of relationship between the
parties’”]; Schrock v. Wyeth, Inc. (10th Cir.
2013) 727 F.3d 1273, 1282 [“Oklahoma courts have also required a relationship between the defendant company and the
product at issue for other theories of liability, including negligence”]).
(Cal. S.C., Dec. 21, 2017, T.H. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, S233898).
Prévisibilité
du dommage en responsabilité civile et contractuelle (droit californien) :
Face à la
question de savoir si un défendeur répond envers un lésé, le droit californien
accorde une importance essentielle à la notion de prévisibilité. Si le
défendeur pouvait prévoir qu'un tiers quelconque, dont l'existence pouvait même
lui être inconnue, risquait d'être lésé, ce défendeur pourrait être condamné à
répondre (l'espèce concerne en particulier l'application de la théorie de la
"misrepresentation" dans le contexte pharmaceutique).
