California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Jones v. Czapkay, 182 Cal.App.2d 192, 6 Cal.Rptr. 182 (Cal. App. 1960):
As said in Routh v. Quinn, 20 Cal.2d 488, 491, 127 P.2d 1, 3, 149 A.L.R. 215: '* * * an indispensable factor to liability founded upon negligence is the existence of a duty of care owed by the alleged wrongdoer to the person injured, or to a class of which he is a member.' No such duty is shown here. In Stang v. City of Mill Valley, 38 Cal.2d 486, 240 P.2d 980, it was held that there was no liability imposed on a city, the city manager or fire chief, for failure to provide sufficient water for effective fire control. '* * * failure of a governmental function * * * involves the denial of a benefit owing to the community as a whole, but it does not constitute a wrong or injury to a member thereof so as to give rise to a right of individual redress (Restatement of Torts, 288), which right must be predicated upon the violation of a duty of care owed to the injured party.'
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