Yes, It Appears They Are Serious...

Echoing what John said yesterday, Torts can be very frustrating. In a case I read tonight, a school district was held liable in a claim by a student from a different school district. What happened was the Defendant school district wrote a letter recommending a former employer of theirs for a position in Plaintiff's school district. He was hired. Plaintiff was later sexually molested by this guy and she sued the Defendant school district for recommending him for the position. The court found that the Defendant had a duty of care to the Plaintiff because it was foreseeable that this guy could have caused harm to a student at his new position 

Hmmm... bit of a stretch. By this logic, pretty much everyone has a duty of care to everyone else, even if they've never met them and their actions have nothing to do with them. I guess if the end goal is to create a society where the government either directly or indirectly (through coercing a third party) compensates all citizens for anything that goes wrong in their lives, this opinion makes for very good policy. If you think those policy ends are total hogwash, this opinion is a nightmare.  

By the way, this decision was from the California Supreme Court in case you were wondering. All the landmark tort cases come from California. Not many big cases expanding the scope of tort law coming out of Texas or South Carolina.