Can Someone be Liable to Pay for Reading His Neighbor’s Newspaper?

Rav Yosef Greenwald, Rav of K’hal Dexter Park

Question: I subscribe to a newspaper that is delivered to my house early every morning. I started to realize that the newspaper doesn’t seem so fresh when I bring it into my house. One morning, I looked out my window and spied my neighbor reading my newspaper. I realized that he has been reading it every day before I take it inside. Can I charge him for reading my paper? 

Answer: This may seem like a case of zeh neheneh v’zeh lo chaseir, which would mean that the neighbor would be patur. However, one could argue that the fact that he made the newspaper not as fresh is considered “chaseir”. This would depend on how we define “chaseir”. What is considered “a loss”?

According to almost all Rishonim if one causes a loss of even a minimal amount, the owner is considered chaseir. At that point, these Rishonim say, “megalgelim alav es hakol”, we make him pay the full amount of the benefit he received. Although there is a dissenting opinion, this is how we pasken. 

In this case, that would mean that if making a newspaper lose its freshness is worth even a shaveh perutah [or perhaps even less], the neighbor would have to pay for the value he received, which may well be something like 50% of the cost of the newspaper.