In Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R., 162 N.E. 99 (N.Y. 1928), which we all remember from our first-year torts class, Judge Benjamin Cardozo restated, in his uniquely pithy manner, the common law rule that whether a duty of care exists depends on the foreseeability of harm: “The risk reasonably to be perceived defines the duty to be obeyed, and risk imports relation; it is risk to another or to others within the range of apprehension. . . .
