Law Commons^™

All Of The Products, None Of The Liability: Examining The Supreme Court Of Ohio's Decision In Stiner V. Amazon.Com, Inc., Danny O'Connor

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Economic Rationality And Ethical Values In Design-Defect Analysis: The Trolley Problem And Autonomous Vehicles, W. Bradley Wendel

W. Bradley Wendel

The trolley problem is a well-known thought experiment in moral philosophy, used to explore issues such as rights, deontological reasons, and intention and the doctrine of double effect. Recently it has featured prominently in popular discussions of decision making by autonomous vehicle systems. For example, a Mercedes-Benz executive stated that, if faced with the choice between running over a child that had unexpectedly darted into the road and steering suddenly, causing a rollover accident that would kill the driver, an automated Mercedes would opt to kill the child. This paper considers not the ethical issues raised by such dilemmas, but …

Nudges And Norms In Multidistrict Litigation: A Response To Engstrom, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

On paper, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure apply equally to billion-dollar opioid allegations and small-stakes claims for $75,000.01. In practice, however, judges and attorneys in high-stakes multidistrict proceedings like those over opioids have invented a smattering of procedures that you’ll never find indexed in the Federal Rules: plaintiff fact sheets, short form complaints, science days, bellwether trials, census orders, inactive dockets, and Lone Pine orders to name but a few. In a world where settlement is the prevailing currency, norms take root. But as norms blossom, the stabilizing features of the federal rules—balance, predictability, and structural protections—can wither. As …

Economic Rationality And Ethical Values In Design-Defect Analysis: The Trolley Problem And Autonomous Vehicles, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The trolley problem is a well-known thought experiment in moral philosophy, used to explore issues such as rights, deontological reasons, and intention and the doctrine of double effect. Recently it has featured prominently in popular discussions of decision making by autonomous vehicle systems. For example, a Mercedes-Benz executive stated that, if faced with the choice between running over a child that had unexpectedly darted into the road and steering suddenly, causing a rollover accident that would kill the driver, an automated Mercedes would opt to kill the child. This paper considers not the ethical issues raised by such dilemmas, but …

When The Feds Have Taken The Field: Federal Field Preemption Of Claims Against Manufacturers Whose Medical Devices Have Received Premarket Approval By The Fda, Charles Warren

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Products Liability And The Internet Of (Insecure) Things: Should Manufacturers Be Liable For Damage Caused By Hacked Devices?, Alan Butler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

While the application of products liability to insecure software is a frequently-discussed concept in academic literature, many commentators have been skeptical of the viability of such claims for several reasons. First, the economic loss doctrine bars recovery for productivity loss, business disruption, and other common damages caused by software defects. Second, the application of design defects principles to software is difficult given the complexity of the devices and recent tort reform trends that have limited liability. Third, the intervening cause of damage from insecure software is typically a criminal or tortious act by a third party, so principles of causation …

Preface To The Gateway Thread, Deborah Post

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Where's The Sense In Hill V. Gateway 2000?: Reflections On The Visible Hand Of Norm Creation, Shubha Ghosh

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cognition And Common Sense In Contract Law, Beverly Horsburgh, Andrew Cappel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Warning: A Post-Sale Duty To Warn Targets Small Manufacturers, Jill Wieber Lens

Utah Law Review

The majority of states now obligate manufacturers to warn about dangers of their products that are discoverable after the sale. Commentators and courts have been hesitant about this obligation because of the potential burden it puts on manufacturers — the costs of identifying users and warning them of the danger. The consensus is that only a factually dependent post-sale duty to warn should exist, obligating manufacturers to warn only if a reasonable manufacturer would do so. A reasonable manufacturer, of course, would warn only if the danger to be warned of justifies the costs of the warning.

This Article is …

The Law And Economics Of Products Liability, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents a largely positive analysis of products liability law, in the sense that it aims to predict the incentive effects and the welfare consequences of the law, with close regard to its specific legal tests and the real-world constraints that impinge on these tests. The other major part of this paper is a normative assessment of the parts of products liability law that should be reformed. In contrast with the prevailing law and economics literature suggesting that products liability law reduces social welfare, I argue that the law probably improves social welfare, though it is in need of …

Products Liability And Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis Of Tort Reform's Impact On Businesses, Employment, And Production, Joanna M. Shepherd

Vanderbilt Law Review

For decades, advocates of tort reform have argued that expansive products liability stifles economic activity by imposing excessive and unpredictable liability costs on businesses. Although politicians aspiring to create jobs, attract businesses, and improve the economy have relied on this argument to enact hundreds of reforms, it has largely gone empirically untested. No longer. Using the most comprehensive dataset to date on products liability reforms and economic activity, I find that many reforms that restrict the scope of products liability improve economic conditions. Specifically, these reforms increase the number of businesses, employment, and production in the industries that face most …

Risky Business: Liability Of Product Sellers Who Offer Safety Devices As Optional Equipment, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article examines the question of whether (or when) product sellers should be allowed to offer optional safety equipment without fear of being held strictly liable for selling a defectively designed product. Part II of this Article examines several approaches to risk-bearing. At one end of the spectrum, the principle of personal autonomy dictates that consumers should decide how much risk they wish to accept. On the other hand, products liability law assumes that if consumers are allowed to subject themselves to greater risk, producers will be quick to take advantage of their inability to make rational decisions about what …

An Essay On Torts: States Of Argument, Marshall S. Shapo

Faculty Working Papers

This essay summarizes high points in torts scholarship and case law over a period of two generations, highlighting the "states of argument" that have characterized tort law over that period. It intertwines doctrine and policy. Its doctrinal features include the tradtional spectrum of tort liability, the duty question, problems of proof, and the relative incoherency of damages rules. Noting the cross-doctrinal role of tort as a solver of functional problems, it focuses on major issues in products liability and medical malpractice. The essay discusses such elements of policy as the role of power in tort law, the tension between communitarianism …

Privacy As Product Safety, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Online social media confound many of our familiar expectations about privacy. Contrary to popular myth, users of social software like Facebook do care about privacy, deserve it, and have trouble securing it for themselves. Moreover, traditional database-focused privacy regulations on the Fair Information Practices model, while often worthwhile, fail to engage with the distinctively social aspects of these online services.

Instead, online privacy law should take inspiration from a perhaps surprising quarter: product-safety law. A web site that directs users' personal information in ways they don't expect is a defectively designed product, and many concepts from products liability law could …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Tobacco Control Legal Consortium Et Al. In Support Of Respondents, Altria Group, Inc. V. Good, No. 07-562 (U.S. June 17, 2008), Kathryn A. Sabbeth, David C. Vladeck

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Peterson V. Balach, Obvious Dangers, And The Duty Of Possessors Of Land In Minnesota, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this article is to analyze Minnesota landowners law, with particular emphasis on the impact of Peterson v. Balach. Following a short history of Minnesota law governing possessors’ duties, including a discussion of pre-Peterson v. Balach and Adee v. Evanson cases, the article considers the question of why the courts, post-Peterson v. Balach/Adee v. Evanson, regularly return to pre-Peterson forms to resolve possessor liability issues, particularly in cases involving obvious dangers, and whether the phenomenon is a result of a wrong turn or is a reflection of a conscious policy choice intended to effectively repudiate the progressive position …

Who Knew? Admissibility Of Subsequent Remedial Measures When Defendants Are Without Knowledge Of The Injuries, Mark G. Boyko, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Federal Rule of Evidence 407 prohibits the introduction of subsequent remedial measures for the purposes of demonstrating negligence, culpable conduct, or product defect. But the rule breaks down, in application and purpose, when a defendant undertakes the new safety measure after the plaintiff's injury, but before the defendant had knowledge of the loss. Such a situation is not uncommon. Would-be defendants frequently improve their products and product safety for a variety of reasons. Toxic exposure cases, where exposure often predates diagnosis of the injury by a decade or more, represent a prime example of cases where defendants are likely to …

Uncertainty And Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert, Margaret A. Berger, Aaron D. Twerski

Michigan Law Review

This Article will first examine why it is that plaintiffs have been unable to prove causation under the Daubert guidelines in toxic tort litigation. Second, it will look at the two existing models for informed choice litigation medical malpractice and products liability-and demonstrate why neither of these models gives toxic tort plaintiffs a fair opportunity to recover for the deprivation of patient autonomy against drug manufacturers who have breached their duty to warn of known or knowable risks. Finally, this Article will explore the elements of a causation-free informed choice cause of action. It will suggest the appropriate standard for …

Proof Of Product Defect, David G. Owen

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inherent Product Hazards, David G. Owen

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Preemption Analysis After Geier V. American Honda Motor Co., Susan D. Hall

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Tracing products liability law from its origins to present day developments, Professor Rabin discusses the long-standing presence of interwoven strands of contract and tort ideology, as well as the perennial tensions between strict liability and negligence. These themes are evident both in the distinctly influential California case law and in the two Restatement efforts to systematize the doctrine that has emerged nationally. Rabin identifies the manner in which foundational ideological precepts of consumer expectations and enterprise liability have contributed to a continuously dynamic, if often unsettled, debate over the appropriate regime for resolving product injury claims.

Constructing A Roof Before The Foundation Is Prepared: The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability, Section 2(B) Design Defect, Frank J. Vandall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability section 2(b) is a wish list from manufacturing America. It returns products liability law to something more restrictive than negligence. What is new from the Reporters is that their proposal is written on a clean sheet of paper. Messy and awkward concepts such as precedent, policy, and case accuracy have been brushed aside for the purpose of tort reform. There has been almost no attempt to evaluate strict liability precedent or the policies underlying previous cases and the Restatement (Second) section 402A. Section 2b (the roof) has been drafted with little consideration of …

Hamilton V. Accutek: Potential Collective Liability Of The Handgun Industry For Negligent Marketing, Tyrone Hughes

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Current Limits On Component And Raw Material Supplier Liability And The Proposed Third Restatement, Edward M. Mansfield

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Warranties And Remedies On Breach: Proposed Revision Of Article 2 And Related Proposals Concerning Products Liability Law, Richard E. Speidel, James J. White

Other Publications

The following materials contain (1) the warranty provisions, §§2-313 through 2-318, from the October, 1995 Draft of Revised Article 2, Sales, with selected Reporter's Notes; (2) Discussion questions on warranties; and (3) A comparison of Revised Article 2 and the ALl's Products Liability Restatement (Tent. Draft #2, March 13, 1995), with discussion problems.

A Purposeful Approach To Products Liability Warnings And Non-English-Speaking Consumers, Thomas H. Lee

Vanderbilt Law Review

This simple statement, which represents a patriotic imperative ' for some Americans and a simple declaration of measurable observation for others, potentially plays havoc with products liability warning law. Products liability law, a byproduct of both common and statutory law, has developed state by state in a crazy quilt pattern across the country; although the states are virtually unanimous on broad doctrines, they have taken a Balkanized approach to details. Today, every jurisdiction recognizes that product manufacturers and sellers have a duty to warn consumers and users adequately of the inherent dangers associated with their products. This recognition, however, does …

Heirs Of Leonardo: Cultural Obstacles To Strict Products Liability In Italy, Anita Bernstein, Paul Fanning

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Bernstein and Mr. Fanning argue that strict products liability, a legal rule recently adopted in the European Union, clashes with the culture of one of its large Member States, Italy. Using a wide array of source material--history, political sociology, literature, and numerous interviews--the authors begin with Italian traditions, exploring their implications for legal change. Strict products liability conflicts with these traditions. The doctrine is collectivist, tending to regard individuals in terms of group membership. Italians reject this aggregation, and affirm the singularity of a product design. The authors conclude that the EU attempt to harmonize its …

Rescuing The Revolution: The Revived Case For Enterprise Liability, Steven P. Croley, Jon D. Hanson

Michigan Law Review

The article proceeds as follows. Part I defines important terms and introduces the two-by-four Products Liability Matrix by explaining the eight possible positions that might be taken with respect to the mutability and liability-standard dimensions of products liability. Part II provides a backdrop for the current products liability debate, first by setting out a capsule history of the evolution of the modem products liability regime, and then by explaining the arguments offered by the "first generation" of products liability scholars to justify expanded manufacturer liability. Part II also illustrates the utility of the Products Liability Matrix by locating many of …