Someone has to be to blame?

I remember when I studied law, many, many years ago, one of the strange things that cropped up was, if it snowed, to think twice before you cleared the pavement outside your house. Why?  Because if you didn't, and someone slipped and hurt themselves, that was their bad luck - an act of God.  But if you did try to clear the snow and then someone slipped and hurt themselves, you could be sued for not doing a good enough job. Thought about that when listening to those flooded out up north blaming the Government for not providing good enough flood defences.  Bit bizarre in any event to be holding the Government responsible for the weather, but would you have preferred that they had done nothing??