1947),[1] is a decision from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that proposed a test to determine the standard of care for the tort of negligence.

The author of the opinion, Judge Learned Hand, stated that there was no general rule with which to deal with liability when a barge with no one on board breaks free and causes damage.

Simply put, the test says: If (Burden < Cost of Injury × Probability of occurrence), then the accused will not have met the standard of care required.

On the facts, the Court ruled that leaving a barge unattended during the daylight hours poses significant risk such that it would be fair to require a crew member to be aboard the ship.

This case is most famous for its first expression of Judge Hand's formula, C > GL (cost is greater than gravity of loss) or in the more common shorthand, BPL.