I Pity the Fool: Ori Herstein’s Defense of the Klutz

Anthony J. Sebok, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Abstract

The sad story of Menlove, the defendant in the English case Vaughn v. Menlove is well known to all first-year torts students. Menlove was born, according to his lawyer, with the “misfortune of not possessing the highest order of intelligence,” and, as a result did something quite imprudent with flammable material that no person of average or typical intelligence (or judgment) would have done, resulting in a fire that damaged the plaintiff, his neighbor.