Part 87: How Espinal v. Melville Snow Contractors Creates Duty for AWS

In this episode, we explore the landmark New York Court of Appeals case Espinal v. Melville Snow Contractors, Inc., 98 N.Y.2d 136 (2002), and why it matters for modern tech accountability. The court held that once a company undertakes a service that others rely on, it must act with reasonable care.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) promotes its Trust & Safety abuse-report system, issuing case numbers and claiming to investigate fraud. By doing so, AWS voluntarily undertook a duty — and when it ignored fraud reports while continuing to bill scam operators, it acted negligently under the Espinal principle.

This case is more than snow removal — it’s a foundation for holding cloud providers responsible when they let crypto fraud and pig-butchering scams thrive on their platforms.

🔗 Read the case: https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2002/98-n-y-2d-136-1.html

▶️ Follow me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JusticeDIY