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"Duty of Care": Yesterday's Hearing in Utah St. Court on Rosenberg v. Google

By Pamela Jones et al.

Some of you expressed an interest in the case of Rosenberg v. Harwood and Google. It's another case where someone used Google Maps and trouble ensued. People seem not to pay attention any more to real life when they follow instructions on Google Maps, and so off they fly into ditches and over cliffs. Then they sue Google. Of course. One thing is undisputed: the map to Google's big pockets is clear enough. The issue is, to what degree does Google have responsibility for inaccuracies? Lawyers call that a "duty of care".

The case was filed [PDF] originally in Federal District Court back in May of 2010, accusing the driver of the vehicle that struck the plaintiff of allegedly not paying attention, which is one of those times when one recalls the old adage that pointing a finger results in three pointing back at you. But it also named Google, alleging that its "walking" instructions [I didn't know there were such, but apparently it was introduced as a beta feature at the end of July in 2008, with a warning to "use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas" -- the accident was in January of 2009] sent the plaintiff to a highway with no sidewalks. Nothing happened for months, until the judge threatened [PDF] in January to dismiss the case, and then the parties decided [PDF] it belonged in state court anyhow, so it was transferred to the Third District Court of Utah, Salt Lake County, which is, sadly, not in PACER.

A Groklaw member took the time to attend the most recent hearing on Google's motion to dismiss the state action. But I'll just mention that when I put in the two addresses mentioned in the complaint, it gives me driving instructions for a trip of 2.2 miles. Did the plaintiff really mean to walk that distance? At night? That seems a bit of a stretch. Today, the walking instructions don't take you to the rural highway, by the way. Did she get driving instructions by mistake, I wonder? Or did Google change the directions? And were walking instructions in January of 2009 still in beta? Also, why didn't she stop when she saw it was a "busy" rural highway? Was she hit instantly or only after she kept on walking and walking? The complaint doesn't say where the accident was precisely, I notice. In my experience, you usually see the accident listed as happening near the intersection of such and such a street and avenue so and so. You are supposed to be specific in complaints, so the defendant knows how to defend. Anyway, cpeterson's kindly sent us a report about the hearing.

Full post as published by Groklaw on March 30, 2011 (boomark / email).