Pascal Surocco Et. Al. V. Geary Case Study

Case: Pascal Surocco et. al. v. John W. Geary. California Supreme Court, 3 Cal. 69; 58 Am. Dec. 385. (1853)
Applicable law:
• Necessitas inducit privilegium quod jura privata [necessity provides a privilege for private rights].
• If a property is on fire, the risk of the fire spreading is imminent, and society as a whole would benefit from the removal of an adjacent building to slow or stop the fire’s progression, then the adjacent property should be destroyed/removed.
Facts:
• Defendant, John Geary, the Alcalde of San Francisco, destroyed the home and business of the plaintiff, Pascal Surocco, during the Great Fire of 1849, which occurred on 24 December 1849 in the City of San Francisco, CA.
• The defendant blew up the property with dynamite

Had the property not been destroyed, considerably more properties would have been destroyed in the fire. The immediate and all foreseeable future costs of this situation were considered by the defendant before the final decision was made to destroy the plaintiff’s property. According to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, “the right action for a particular occasion is the one that produces more utility than any other possible action, it does not mean that the right action is the one that produces the most utility for the person performing the action” (Velasquez, 2012, p. 79). When the defendant made the decision to destroy the plaintiff’s building, none of the utility benefited him personally. In this case, the utility benefited the city and its people. He had to consider both the direct and indirect costs and benefits to each affected person before determining the best course of action.
In the case of Surocco v. Geary, not only did the defendant act in accordance with his duty to the majority, he also acted efficiently, meaning his actions produced the most desired outcome for the largest number of people while using the lowest amount of resources. Efficiency is one of the major premises of utilitarianism. By blowing up one property, many others had the potential of being saved because a fire break was created by the vacant