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Oiler v. Willke6/30/1994
nt and to anticipate inconceivable results. However, as stated above, although a defendant may be liable for resulting injuries that were not specifically foreseeable, the injury still must be "closely related" to the type of danger created by the original conduct, i.e., there is no unlimited liability. Furthermore, foreseeability of consequences, or, as it is sometimes called, the risk of harm, is only one of the factors which are important in determining negligence. Into the scales with it must also be thrown the gravity of the harm if it is to occur, and against both must be weighed the utility of the challenged conduct. See Prosser & Keeton, supra, at Section 31. Thus, we do not believe our decision places unjustified responsibilities on physicians, since between an entirely innocent plaintiff and a defendant who has been negligent, the burden of loss due to consequences beyond a known, but closely related, risk should fall upon the wrongdoer.
Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and this case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
PETER B. ABELE, J., concurs.
STEPHENSON, J., dissents.
STEPHENSON, Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. While I agree that the principal opinion correctly states the applicable law on the question of foreseeability, I do not concur in its wooden application to the facts presented in the cause sub judice. It is undisputed that AIDS was not a foreseeable risk of a platelet transfusion in 1980. See, generally, Kozup, supra, 663 F.Supp. at 1051-1053. There are no doubt many diseases yesunknown to medical science which await discovery in the future. To hold a physician liable for unforeseeable consequences or diseases unknown to medical science is to, in effect, adopt a public policy of making the physician an insurer. I decline to join my colleagues in what is, in my view, an illogical and unconscionable result. Hence, my dissent.
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