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Remediating Racism For Rent: A Landlord’S Obligation Under The Fha, Mollie Krent

Michigan Law Review

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) is an expansive and powerful piece of legislation that furthers equal housing in the United States by ferreting out discrimination in the housing market. While the power of the Act is well recognized by courts, the full contours of the FHA are still to be refined. In particular, it remains unsettled whether and when a landlord can be liable for tenant-on-tenant harassment. This Note argues, first, that the FHA does recognize liability in such a circumstance and, second, that a landlord should be subject to liability for her negligence in such a circumstance. Part I …

Resolving "Resolved": Covenants Not To Sue And The Availability Of Cercla Contribution Actions, Jacob Podell

Michigan Law Review

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)—as part of its dual goals of cleaning up hazardous-waste sites and ensuring that the polluter pays for that cleanup—gives private parties two mutually exclusive causes of action: cost recovery and contribution. Contribution is available in limited circumstances, including if the party has “resolved” its liability with the government. But CERCLA does not define this operative term. Federal courts are split over how the structure of a settlement resolves liability. Several courts follow Bernstein v. Bankert, which held that any conditions precedent and nonadmissions of liability strongly suggest that a party …

Unclaimed Property And Due Process: Justifying 'Revenue-Raising' Modern Escheat, Teagan J. Gregory

Michigan Law Review

States have long claimed the right to take custody of presumably abandoned property and hold it for the benefit of the true owner under the doctrine of escheat. In the face of increasing fiscal challenges, states have worked to increase their collection of unclaimed property via new escheat legislation that appears to bear little or no relation to protecting the interests of owners. Holders of unclaimed property have raised substantive due process challenges in response to these modern escheat statutes. This Note contends that two categories of these disputed laws-those shortening dormancy periods and those allowing states to estimate a …

The Case Against Intermediate Owner Liability Under Cercla For Passive Migration Of Hazardous Waste, Robert L. Bronston

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that Congress intended disposal to have an active meaning and therefore that courts should not hold prior intermediate owners liable for the passive migration of hazardous waste under section 107(a)(2). Part I examines CERCLA's definition of disposal. This Part concludes that the language of the definition, though somewhat ambiguous, supports the active defuiition. Part II considers the history of both CERCLA and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which CERCLA amended, in order to determine whether Congress intended to require affirmative conduct on the part of intermediate owners as a prerequisite to liability. Part II …

The Liability Of Officers And Directors Under The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery And Enforcement Act Of 1989, Jon Shepherd

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that FIRREA's gross negligence standard implements a minimum federal requirement that preempts state law only to the extent state law provides a more relaxed criterion. Part I examines the plain meaning of the statute and concludes that FIRREA preempts state law only to the extent the state law standard of care is lower than gross negligence. Part II scrutinizes FIRREA's legislative history and demonstrates that Congress did not intend to prevent states from imposing more stringent standards of liability. Part III analyzes the policies behind FIRREA and argues that the statute's purposes are best served by allowing …

Easment Holder Liability Under Cercla: The Right Way To Deal With Rights-Of-Way, Jill D. Neiman

Michigan Law Review

Responding to growing public concern about the accumulation of toxic wastes, Congress in 1980 passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA authorizes federal action to clean up, or to require others to clean up, leaking hazardous waste sites. Congress placed the financial burden for this cleanup on those responsible for the problem and on those who benefited from improper methods of hazardous waste disposal. Through this liability scheme, Congress also intended CERCLA to encourage responsible or benefited parties to respond voluntarily to the hazardous waste problem.

Part I asserts that CERCLA's legislative history, when read against …

Nuclear Power: Risk, Liability, And Indemnity, Harold P. Green

Michigan Law Review

In 1946, the Congress of the United States enacted the original Atomic Energy Act as the framework for development, control, and use of atomic energy. This Act provided for the transfer to the new Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), a civilian agency, of the entire atomic energy program which to that point had been conducted by the Manhattan Engineer District, a creature of the United States Army. The Act contemplated that the heart of the nuclear technology-the production of special nuclear material and the use of special nuclear material in both military and civil applications- would be a government monopoly. All …

Private Insurance As A Solution To The Driver-Guest Dilemm, Harvey R. Friedman

Michigan Law Review

The duty of the driver of an automobile to his nonpaying passenger, and liability arising from the breach of that duty, has long presented a troublesome area of litigation for the courts and the parties involved. Application of standards unsuited for the peculiar risks of automotive transportation has produced inadequate compensation in some cases and excessive recoveries in others. Meanwhile, trial calendars are overcrowded with personal injury litigation, and insurance companies must bear the awards of sympathetic juries and those resulting from collusion between passenger and driver. The over-all expense of this method of determination of liability, far too little …

Admiralty - Death On The High Seas Act - Effect On Workmen's Compensation Recoveries, Thomas E. Kauper S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, aboard an airliner in his capacity as flight service supervisor, was killed when the plane crashed into the Pacific. Respondent airlines, decedent's employer, filed an application with the California Industrial Accident Commission to determine its liability under the California Workmen's Compensation Act. The commission awarded decedent's widow a death benefit despite the widow's objection to the commission's jurisdiction. Prior to the award the widow as administratrix of decedent's estate initiated this action under the Death on the High Seas Act (DHSA) in admiralty. On motion for summary judgment in respondent's favor, held, motion granted. DHSA is applicable to …

Atomic Energy - Indemnity Legislation - Anderson Amendments To The Atomic Energy Act Of 1954, Dudley H. Chapman S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Anderson Amendments were enacted to encourage private industry to enter the atomic energy field by removing the risk of excessive liability for a major nuclear reactor disaster. Such a disaster could result in liability far in excess of available insurance coverage. The solution provided by the new legislation has three aspects: (1) After private financial protection, geared to the amount of available insurance, is obtained by a person licensed by the Atomic Energy Commission, (2) the Commission will execute an agreement to indemnify (not insure) the licensee and "any other person who may be liable for public liability" to …

Torts - Federal Torts Claims Act- Pertinence Of Governmental Proprietary Distinction, David L. Nelson

Michigan Law Review

The tug Navajo went aground and its cargo was severely damaged by water. The owners and insurers of the tug and its cargo brought an action under the Federal Tort Claims Act alleging that the grounding of the Navajo was caused by the failure of the light in the lighthouse on Chandeleur Island, and that this failure was attributable to negligent acts and omissions on the part of Coast Guard personnel whose duty it was to check the light. The district court dismissed the action on the ground that the United States had not consented to be sued in the …

Securities Legislation - Limitations Upon The Scope Of Rule X-10b-5, Cyril Moscow

Michigan Law Review

A syndicate attempted to acquire all of the outstanding stock in a bridge corporation pursuant to a plan to transfer the stock to a bridge commission and realize substantial returns. The price offered for the stock was well over the market price but the resale plan was not disclosed. After control of 80 percent of the stock was obtained, the syndicate's purchasing agents were installed as officers and directors. They continued to purchase the stock without revealing the plan and the anticipated profits. Upon the completion of the plan, former stockholders in the corporation brought a class action against the …

Impact Of The Commercial Code On Liability Of Parties To Negotiable Instruments In Michigan, Roy L. Steinheimer Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Since the Uniform Commercial Code is now effective in Pennsylvania and is under active consideration by official bodies in other states, it seems appropriate to investigate in some detail the impacts which this proposed legislation would have upon the accumulated business, legislative and judicial understanding and experience in the commercial law area in a specific jurisdiction. As an illustration of the problems which will be faced by judges, lawyers and businessmen in any jurisdiction which adopts the code, the writer has chosen to analyze some impacts which the code would have on commercial law in Michigan. Space limitations make it …