Law Commons^™

Measles And Misrepresentation In Minnesota: Can There Be Liability For Anti-Vaccine Misinformation That Causes Bodily Harm?, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, John Diamond

San Diego Law Review

Balancing protecting and compensating victims of harmful fake news and protecting freedom of speech and the information flow is both important and challenging. Vaccines are one area where misinformation can directly cause harm. When misrepresentation leads people to refuse vaccines, disease outbreaks can happen, causing harm, even deaths, and imposing costs on the community. The tort of negligent misrepresentation that causes physical harm appears a custom-made remedy for those affected. However, courts—appropriately— narrowed the tort to protect freedom of speech and the flow of information. This Article uses an especially egregious example of anti-vaccine misrepresentation to examine the boundaries of …

The Defamation Injunction Meets The Prior Restraint Doctrine, Doug Rendleman

San Diego Law Review

This article maintains that, under defined circumstances, a judge should be able to grant an injunction that forbids the defendant’s proved defamation. It analyzes the common law of defamation, the constitutional prior restraint doctrine, the constitutional protection for defamation that stems from New York Times v. Sullivan, and injunctions and their enforcement.

In Near v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court expanded protection for expression by adding an injunction to executive licensing as a prior restraint. Although the Near court circumscribed the injunction as a prior restraint, it approved criminal sanctions and damages judgment for defamation. An injunction that forbids the defendant’s …

The Road To Autonomy, Michelle Sellwood

San Diego Law Review

[T]his Comment discusses the background of AI and robotics, the technology behind the autonomous vehicle, and the evolution of products liability laws. Part III examines current regulations, the benefits of autonomous technology, and the need for a definitive liability framework. Part IV discusses why current tort liability laws will be ineffective in governing autonomous vehicle liability by examining the shift in liability from the driver to the owner and manufacturer. Part V proposes a short-term solution by attributing liability to the programmer, while software is still hard-coded. Finally, Part VI explores legal personhood, and proposes that the autonomous vehicle be …

From Calder To Walden And Beyond: The Proper Application Of The “Effects Test” In Personal Jurisdiction Cases, Lee Goldman

San Diego Law Review

...This Article argues that the critical element of Calder’s three-part test is the finding of intentional conduct. It should not be enough that the defendant intended to engage in the conduct that is later found to be tortious. Rather, the defendant’s intentional conduct must have been willfully wrongful. This should require some element of bad faith on the part of the defendant. Where willful misconduct affects a known resident of the forum, the defendant can reasonably foresee being haled into the forum and jurisdiction would not be unfair. The defendant should therefore be found to have expressly aimed its conduct …

National Geographics: Toward A “Federalism Function” Of American Tort Law, Riaz Tejani

San Diego Law Review

This Article will situate the federalism function among existing scholarly frameworks and assess the “contoured” approach to federal and state power balancing across the existing subject matter of torts. Part II will assess conflicting characterizations of tort law as on one hand “private” and on the other “public” law. Part III will define and explain competing functions of tort law with an eye to whether federalism fits the common criteria of these coexisting objectives, goals, purposes, and methods for adjudication. In Part IV, the Article will explore historical and contemporary roles of federalism to understand why this process becomes so …

Wrongful Death And Survival Actions For Torts In Violation Of International Law, Alastair J. Agcaoili

San Diego Law Review

This Article aims to make sense of this neglected area of ATS law. I contend that the salient issue in these deceased-victim cases is not whether the nonvictim plaintiffs have standing to sue but rather whether they have a viable cause of action in the first place. Standing and cause of action concepts have an uneasy relationship in law. Although the distinction between constitutional standing and cause of action inquiries is well established, the division is less clear where, as here, standing doctrine is used to define a plaintiff’s eligibility to bring suit. Indeed, reliance on standing terminology in this …

Pliva Shields Big Pharma From Billions, Cuts Consumers' Rights, Dana Taschner

San Diego Law Review

This Article explores the emergence of the LRA test, as well as its dangers, and explains how an equivalent norm underlies recent monopolization cases. The Author concludes that the law should not require business practices to maximize social welfare to pass muster under the antitrust laws. As tools of public policy directed at unilateral market behavior, antitrust and regulation have long played distinct, though complementary, roles. Natural-monopoly regulation has as its immodest goal the maximization of consumer welfare by simultaneously imposing universal service obligations and spurring the efficiencies associated with competition through the imposition of various behavioral constraints. That such …

The Ftca, Veterans, And Future Medical Expenses, R. J. Pinto

San Diego Law Review

In this comment the author aims to expose the jurisprudential flaws in a particular area of the law and advocate, as his prescription a refocused jurisprudence. Part II describes how courts have historically come to the conclusion that veterans suing under the FTCA should be awarded future medical expenses despite their entitlement to VA medical care. Part III address a threshold issue: the extent to which courts using this framework have overcompensated veterans. Part IV addresses why overcompensating veterans under the FTCA matters on a policy level. Part V exposes the problems with the court's jurisprudence and provides a solution …

Mexican Law And Personal Injury Cases: An Increasingly Prominent Area For U.S. Legal Practitioners And Judges, Jorge A. Vargas

San Diego International Law Journal

Since tort law cases are seldom filed in Mexico, and the number of judicial resolutions rendered by Mexican courts are few and relatively unimportant, is there a sufficient corpus of Mexican jurisprudence that may be tapped into by American judges to ascertain the rules of Mexican law that govern a case pending before an American trial judge or an appellate justice? Considering that American courts resolve a far larger number of personal injury cases governed by Mexican as compared to the nominal amount of cases decided in Mexico by Mexican courts, is there a risk that this rapidly growing number …

Soldiers Of Semipalatinsk: Seeking A Theory And Forum For Legal Remedy, Anne Miers Kammer

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will address the unique dilemma of individuals in Kazakhstan whose health has been compromised by the former Soviet Union's 40-year period of nuclear testing on what is now Kazakhstan soil. The principal legal analysis of this Comment will focus on the availability of remedies (in the form of monetary damages available through legal resolution) to the citizens and/or state of Kazakhstan, and potential judicial forums in which to seek those remedies. Particular attention will be paid to the comparative likelihood of successful remedial legal action if pursued by a private class of Kazakhstan citizens versus action pursued by …

Duty Of Care To The Intoxicated: The Irish Approach, Mary Drennan

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article examines whether the relationship between publican and patron should or should not produce such an obligation. It also addresses the possible defenses to such a claim in the tort of negligence. Finally, as the matter is not a settled point of Irish law, this Article also attempts to assess the potential approach of its courts, in view of the approach taken by the English courts to the issue and the flurry of academic comment in the wake of a recent Irish settlement. These issues are certain to surface in litigation again. Regardless of the approach taken by the …

Tobacco Tort Litigation In California: A Better Understanding Of Civil Code Section 1714.45, Stephen D. Sugarman

San Diego Law Review

Before 1963, lawsuits in California by victims of product injuries were either handled under principles of negligence or they were cast as contract claims that drew on “implied warranty” principles.8 For example, if someone bought a loaf of bread from a local bakery, took a bite out of the loaf, and it turned out that a sharp pin hidden in the bread injured the person, the victim could sue the bakery (1) in tort, claiming that the bakery negligently allowed the pin to get into the bread, or (2) in contract, claiming that in providing this sort of bread the …

The Phantom Reliance Interest In Tort Damages, Michael B. Kelly

San Diego Law Review

The reliance interest has fascinated me for some time.' As a measure of damages for breach of contract, it seems theoretically unjustified and flawed in its implementation. In theory, it requires compensation for lost opportunities? In practice, such compensation is rarely provided'

unless one counts the expectation interest as a proxy for opportunities lost in reliance on a promise. In theory, it justifies recoveries that may exceed expectation. Yet, even its progenitors refused to endorse that implication. Why, then, does the reliance interest have continuing appeal

Remedies For Imperfect Transactions In Contracts And Torts, David W. Barnes

San Diego Law Review

The papers by Professors DeLong, Wonnell, and Kelly in this Symposium address different types of imperfect transactions. Promises that are the subject of section 90 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts are imperfect in the sense that they lack consideration or are disclaimed in subsequent, formalized, written contracts.' Section 90 authorizes courts to find remedies for reasonable but fruitless expenditures induced by parties who make promises on which they should reasonably expect others to rely.2 Professor DeLong decries courts' formalist strategies for enforcing disclaimers that eliminate these promisors' potential liability for intentionally imperfect transactions.' Taking Professor DeLong's analysis of imperfect …

"Waive" Goodbye To Tort Liability: A Proposal To Remove Paternalism From Product Sales Transactions, Richard C. Ausness

San Diego Law Review

This Article argues that waivers of tort liability should be permitted in connection with product sales. Currently, sellers cannot limit their liability under tort law for personal injuries caused by defective products even though such waivers are allowed, albeit reluctantly, under principles of negligence and warranty law.

Alternative Liability In Litigation Malpractice Actions: Eradicating The Last Resort Of Scoundrels, Lawrence W. Kessler

San Diego Law Review

The legal malpractice tort, however, has managed to withstand the winds of legal change. Particularly crucial has been the refusal to apply alternative causation doctrines. The refusal to apply causation doctrines that have been embraced in other areas has significant social effects. As a result, the consumers of legal services receive less protection from the courts than do the consumers of products or medical services.

The Tort That Refuses To Go Away: The Subtle Reemergence Of Public Disclosure Of Private Facts

San Diego Law Review

This Comment focuses instead on the subtle reemergence of the private facts tort in factual scenarios Warren and Brandeis most likely could not foresee one hundred years ago. Part II of the Comment briefly describes the development of the private facts tort. Part III examines the inevitable conflict between the private facts tort and the First Amendment, and common law attempts to reconcile that conflict through variations of the "newsworthiness" defense. Part IV focuses on the resurrection of the private facts tort in recent case law, due to judicial limitation of the newsworthiness defense. Finally, after examining the problems associated …

A Jurisprudence In Disarray: On Battery, Wrongful Living, And The Right To Bodily Integrity, Mark Strasser

San Diego Law Review

The right to bodily integrity is firmly entrenched in the right to privacy jurisprudence. An individual who has that right violated by being subjected to an unwanted touching can sue for damages. For example, an individual who receives medical treatment against her will can bring an action for battery, even if that treatment provides her a net benefit.' Yet, the determination of whether our current system provides either sufficient compensation for the victim of a nonconsensual physical invasion or a sufficient disincentive to possible tortfeasors to prevent such invasions is only possible after the potential damages for such invasions are …

The Case For Borrowing A Limitations Period For Deemed-Denial Suits Brought Pursuant To The Federal Tort Claims Act, Ugo Colella

San Diego Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Tort Reform And Millionaire Muggers: Should An Obscure Equitable Doctrine Be Revived To Dent The Litigation Crisis?, Robert A. Prentice

San Diego Law Review

Few stories have more power to outrage than that of Bernard McCummings, the "millionaire mugger" who was awarded $4.3 million by a jury after he was shot by a police officer allegedly using excessive force. This Article focuses on an equitable doctrine which could bar recovery in cases like that of McCummings and, potentially, in a much broader range of cases. The equitable doctrine, "ex turpi causa non oritur actio," means essentially that a person who has committed an illegal or immoral act may not bring a lawsuit. This Article examines how the doctrine is applied in selected western common …

An Index And Table Of Contents To The Ali Reporters' Study On Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury, Jeffrey O'Connell, Alexander S. Glovsky

San Diego Law Review

In 1986, the American Law Institute (ALI) published a report to analyze and appraise the state of the tort system and to recommend reform. This study lacked crucial aids that could make it more accessible: it was devoid of any index and the table of contents did not contain any subheadings. The authors of this Article created an index and a comprehensive table of contents, in order to make the report more "user friendly." This Article contains a brief description of the 1986 ALI Reporter's Study, followed by an expanded table of contents and an index.

An Ali Report Markets A Defective Product: Errors At Retail And Wholesale, Marshall S. Shapo

San Diego Law Review

This Article analyzes a chapter in the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury, the chapter titled "Product Defects and Warnings." The author is highly critical of the Study, noting its lack of depth of historical focus, its failure to take existing doctrine with sufficient seriousness, and its deficiencies in both terminology and analysis. The author argues that the Study fails to give sufficient weight to competing points of view, and that it consistently fails to present specific and relevant applications. The author concludes that the Study itself is a defective product.

Comments On The Reporters' Study Of Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury, Jerry J. Phillips

San Diego Law Review

This Article critiques the substantive law and damage proposals of the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Liability, which was published in 1991 by the American Law Institute. Contrary to the Reporters' recommendations, the author proposes retaining the consumer expectations test and strict liability for product suppliers. He argues that it is not practical to shift medical malpractice liability, as proposed by the Study, from doctors to hospitals. In the area of damages, the author proposes retaining the rules of recovery for pain and suffering, punitive damages, and the collateral source rules essentially as they are now, instead of adopting the changes …

The American Law Institute's Reporters' Study On Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury: A Timely Call For Punitive Damages Reform, Victor E. Schwarz, Mark A. Behrens

San Diego Law Review

This Article focuses on the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury, specifically the Reporters' recommendations for punitive damages reform. The Article discusses the Study's analysis of the need for punitive damages reform, with which the author agrees. The Article also discusses the Study's recommendations concerning reform of the standard by which punitive damages should be awarded, recommendations to set reasonable limits on the size of punitive damage awards, and the recommendation of a shield against punitive damages for products that comply with federal regulatory standards. The authors find that generally the recommendations are fair and reasonable. They believe …

Who Pays In The End For Injury Compensation - Reflections On Wealth Transfers From The Innocent, Alfred F. Conard

San Diego Law Review

This Article recognizes that the people who actually pay for tort judgments are generally not the wrongdoers, but the enterprises that have employed or insured the tortfeasors, or purveyed the faulty products. The enterprises then recover their expenditures by charging higher prices to their consumers, or by reducing the benefits that they confer on investors, workers, and the general public. The consumers, the workers, the public, and the investors are the innocent human beings who contribute to paying for tort judgments. This Article addresses what kinds of losses justify forcing the innocent to contribute, and suggests reforms that seem to …

A Lost Opportunity: A Review Of The American Law Institute's Reporters' Study On Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury, Jeffrey O'Connell, Chad M. Oldfather

San Diego Law Review

This is a critical analysis of the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury. Although recognizing that the Study is comprehensive and well researched, the authors express disappointment at the lack of vision contained in the Study. They find that the authors of the Study failed to find their way out of the maze of the tort system, and in exploring so many nooks and crannies they become lost in the details, rather than looking at the big picture. The authors of this Article provide a brief overview of the Study, and proceed with analysis. They conclude that the …

Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury: Further Reflections, Kenneth S. Abraham, Robert L. Rabin, Paul C. Weiler

San Diego Law Review

This Article, written by three contributors to the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury, offers further reflections about specific areas and proposals in the Study that have evoked important questions and comments. It addresses the concern that there are too many lawyers and lawsuits in the United States, and that it is this overpopulation of lawyers that is causing excessive tort litigation. It also addresses high damage awards and insurance premiums, it recommends refining products liability, and recommends organizational responsibility for medical malpractice. This Article is a supplement to the Study, and offers further examination of important issues …

Rejoinder: Advances In The Analysis, Marshall S. Shapo

San Diego Law Review

This brief Rejoinder addresses two levels of issues: broad questions involved in the effort to establish a critical overview of injury law and questions more precisely bound up with products liability law. The author lauds the Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury on its significant contribution to academic debate in this country, and for its openness to a competition of many divergent ideas in the context of organizational culture. Despite the problems that this author noted in his first Article in this symposium, he recognizes the achievement of the Study, and the genuine advance that it provides in …

The American Law Institute's Reporters' Study On Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury: Perspectives On The Tort System And The Liability Crisis

San Diego Law Review

In 1986 a number of prominent legal scholars embarked upon a project commissioned by the American Law Institute to re-examine contemporary tort and personal injury law. Five years later, the results of this project came to fruition in a two-volume study entitled Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury. After a year's debate within the American Law Institute about the broad range of issues canvassed by the Study, the Institute's Executive Council endorsed the value of the Study for deliberations about tort reform going on in both legislative and judicial forums. This is the introductory chapter of each volume …

The American Law Institute's Reporters' Study On Enterprise Responsibility For Personal Injury: Reforming The Tort System

San Diego Law Review

In 1986 a number of prominent legal scholars embarked upon a project commissioned by the American Law Institute to re-examine contemporary tort and personal injury law. Five years later, the results of this project came to fruition in a two-volume study entitled Reporters' Study on Enterprise Responsibility for Personal Injury. After a year's debate within the American Law Institute about the broad range of issues canvassed by the Study, the Institute's Executive Council endorsed the value of the Study for deliberations about tort reform going on in both legislative and judicial forums. This is the introductory chapter of each volume …