Hypothetical 2 [See Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.- (Court of Appeals of New York, 1928)]

At the Boonta Eve Classic, Ody Mandrell's droid accidently was pulled through his pod's engine, causing an explosion that set off a chain reaction that caused a large part of the stands of the Mos Espa Grand Stadium to collapse and crushed Ziro the Hutt's prized jester Gibberous Crumb, injuring him severely. Crumb sues Ody Mandrell for negligence. What result?

Hines v. Morrow- (Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Dallas, 1921)

Luke Skywalker returned to Dagobah to continue Jedi training under the tutelage of Master Yoda. Under the direction of his master, Luke proceeded to stand on his head and lift some large rocks into the air using the Force. Before completing the exercise, with the rocks still floating mid-air, Luke's hand that had prior to that time been severed in an unrelated intrafamily lightsaber duel, which was extended with a cybernetic hand, began to sink into the swamp mud. The hand went down into a hole at least 10 inches or 12 inches, filled with soft mud and water, and Luke's limb became securely fastened therein, and he was unable by his own efforts to extricate his said hand from said hole. As he was sinking, Luke, a young Padawan, not yet fully trained in the Jedi ways, became distressed and lost concentration, at which point the rocks he had been levitating began to fall toward him. In order to avoid the danger of being hit with large rocks, which danger was then imminent and certain, if he was unable to extricate his limb from said hole and said danger would have caused to him death or serious bodily injury, and, prompted thereby, he used the force to lift himself up into the branches of a Gnarltree located nearby and out of the path of the falling rocks. Thereby his hand and arm were pulled from the hole and in doing so a coil in a hanging vine that was dangling between him and the tree caught Luke's other arm. As Luke was flew through the air, the vine tightened around his arm and so mangled and lacerated the same that it became necessary to amputate his only non-cybernetic hand.

Luke sued Yoda for his injuries resulting from Yoda's negligent maintenance of the area used for training, specifically failure to repair the many slimy mudholes. (Yoda's response: "Mudhole?! Slimy?! My home this is!")

Yoda's defense relied on the assertion that the accident was too freakish to be foreseen, even by Yoda's power of Force vision.

The court found for Luke because the injuries were a result of Yoda's negligence, and the exact consequences of negligence do not have to be foreseen.

Contributed by Andrew Greenberg

Summers v. Tice- (Supreme Court of California, 1948)

Commander Cody and two other clone troopers were in the field hunting for Separatist Droids on Geonosis when Cody decided to scout a head and recon the area. Due to radiation from a nearby nebula, all scanning transmissions were effectively jammed. When the other clone troopers caught up with Cody, he jumped up to give them further instructions, at which time they both fired very, very negligently directly in Cody's direction upon hearing this rustling and not detecting his signal. They shot him twice in the face.

During the Republic Tribunal's court marshal of the two clone troopers, it was determined that due to the lack of evidence as to which injury was the cause-in-fact of Cody's injury, then Cody could sue both of the troopers under the doctrine of Joint/Several liability. Further, under this doctrine if Cody could establish negligence on the part of the two troopers (which they totally were), he could recover the entirety of his damages from one or the other.

Bethel v. New York City Transit Authority- (Court of Appeals, New York, 1998)

Jek Porkins was sitting in transit on his way to a briefing at the Tierfon Rebel Base when his seat collapsed beneath him. Porkins sued the Rebel Transit Authority for negligence. Though Porkins had no proof that the Rebels knew of the defective seat, he stated that the Authority owed him the "highest duty of care" as a common carrier for Rebel forces, and that they had constructive notice of the problem due to repairs of the seat 11 days earlier. While a trial court found for Porkins, the ruling was overturned, stating that the extraordinary requirements of the common law for common carriers was unacceptably harsh. The court instead opted for the establishment of a "reasonable person" standard, which is far more flexible. The case was remanded to a lower court for a new trial based on the "reasonable person" standard.