Casting Blame

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Now the world knows what a civil jury in Manhattan thinks of risk assessment, but after yesterday’s Port Authority verdict we’ll just have to hold our breaths until the business community casts its own verdict. We have a sinking feeling this ruling could make everyone less safe.


Victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing argued that because the Port Authority had commissioned several safety studies, including one in 1985 that raised concerns about the garage, but had failed to act on the report’s recommendation to close it, the authority was liable for the six deaths, 1,000 injuries, and property damage that resulted when terrorists detonated a bomb there. The verdict rested on a provision of New York law stating that landlords can be held liable for standing idle in the face of “foreseeable” crimes. The Port Authority has vowed to appeal.


The jury apparently bought the argument that the Port Authority went from being 0% responsible to more than two thirds guilty because it was concerned about security at the Trade Center site. The message this verdict sends is that it’s better for landlords not to care. By turning these studies against the Port Authority, this verdict risks sending a chill down the spine of any business leader who is tempted to be any more concerned about risk assessment than the law requires.


Scientists, including professional risk assessors, are human and if you were to commission 100 studies of the dangers lurking in your home, you would probably end up with 100 slightly different recommendations, some right and some wrong. Acting responsibly, you would weigh the costs and benefits of the recommendations but not act on all of them. Yet if you knew that the one recommendation that might turn out to be prophetic could be used against you in a court of law if you ignored it, you might not bother in the first place. We can only hope now that a successful appeal of this ruling prevents the business community from falling into that same trap.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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