 As a judge on the US Supreme Court, Holmes decided cases in ways that some have argued are at odds with his theoretical pronouncements about the law of negligence, focusing on the rights of the parties rather than questions of insurance. One important case concerned the question of whether the defendant could be liable for causing economic losses in the absence of damage to the plaintiff’s property. Holmes held that there was no liability because no right had been violated. The absence of liability in such cases is largely settled, but this rationale for disallowing pure economic losses continues to be contested.