Law Commons^™

Lending A Hand: The Use Of The Mississippi Products Liability Act And Mississippi's Blood Shield Statute In Palermo V. Lifelink Found., Inc., Taylor Price

Mississippi College Law Review

The experience of undergoing a surgical procedure is one of the most vulnerable positions an average individual finds themselves in during his or her lifetime. The overall risk associated with this process is even greater when the surgery involves the removal or transfer of one or more of the body's organs or tissues. The principal event that concerned Palermo v. LifeLink Found., Inc. was a botched surgical operation featuring a human tissue implant performed in March 2005 on Richard Palermo. The tissue implant surgically inserted into Palermo's knee became bacterially infected shortly after the operation and required further injury, causing …

America’S “Kia Boys”: The Problem, Responses, And Recommendations, Drew Thornley

Seattle University Law Review SUpra

The landscape of automobile theft in the United States has undergone a dramatic transformation, marked by a notable surge in the theft of Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Once regarded as a routine occurrence, car thefts have taken on a novel dimension, propelled by a phenomenon driven by digital culture and social media virality. The thefts of these specific car brands have evolved into what is now widely recognized as the "Kia Challenge," a term echoing across popular platforms like TikTok. In this challenge, young teenage individuals, often referred to as the "Kia Boys" or variations thereof, orchestrate daring car heists, …

Tort Immunity In The Pandemic, Betsy J. Grey, Samantha Orwoll

Indiana Law Journal

The Covid-19 pandemic set off a public health emergency that quickly brought doctors and other health care providers to the front line, while shuttering businesses throughout the United States. In response to the emergency, the federal and state governments rapidly created broad protections from tort liability for health care providers. To encourage businesses to reopen, some states have also provided liability protection for businesses from personal injury suits brought by patrons and employees. Congress is considering similar protections for businesses as it contemplates further aid packages. Some industries, like nursing homes and universities, are lobbying for specific immunity. This Essay …

Choice Of Law And The Preponderantly Multistate Rule: The Example Of Successor Corporation Products Liability, Diana Sclar

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Most state rules of substantive law, whether legislative or judicial, ordinarily adjust rights and obligations among local parties with respect to local events. Conventional choice of law methodologies for adjudicating disputes with multistate connections all start from an explicit or implicit assumption of a choice between such locally oriented substantive rules. This article reveals, for the first time, that some state rules of substantive law ordinarily adjust rights and obligations with respect to parties and events connected to more than one state and only occasionally apply to wholly local matters. For these rules I use the term “nominally domestic rules …

Revenge Porn, Thomas Lonardo, Tricia P. Martland, Rhode Island Bar Journal

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Keep Suing All The Lawyers: Recent Developments In Claims Against Lawyers For Aiding & Abetting A Client’S Breach Of Fiduciary Duty, Katerina P. Lewinbuk

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Lawyers have increasingly become subject to liability under various legal theories, ranging from traditional legal malpractice or negligence liability claims to various third-party actions. Most recently, state and federal courts across the country have recognized attorney liability for aiding and abetting a client’s breach of fiduciary duty. This Article will address the current status of the cause of action for a lawyer’s aiding and abetting her client’s breach of fiduciary duty, explain the commonalities and distinguish nuances as outlined by particular states, examine recent decisions by federal courts that have recognized the cause of action, and culminate in its conclusion …

What Should Law Enforcement Role Be In Addressing Quality Of Life Issues Associated With Section 8 Housing?, D'Andre D. Lampkin

D'Andre Devon Lampkin

The purpose of this research project is to discuss the challenges law enforcement face when attempting to address quality of life issues for residents residing in and around Section 8 federal housing. The paper introduces readers to the purpose of Section 8 housing, the process in which residents choose subsidized housing, and the legal challenges presented when law enforcement agencies are assisting city government to address quality of life issues. For purposes of this research project, studies were sampled to illustrate where law enforcement participation worked and where law enforcement participation leads to unintended legal ramifications.

Gandhi’S Prophecy: Corporate Violence And A Mindful Law For Bhopal, Nehal A. Patel

Nehal A. Patel

AbstractOver thirty years have passed since the Bhopal chemical disaster began,and in that time scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR) havediscussed and debated several frameworks for improving corporate responseto social and environmental problems. However, CSR discourse rarelydelves into the fundamental architecture of legal thought that oftenbuttresses corporate dominance in the global economy. Moreover, CSRdiscourse does little to challenge the ontological and epistemologicalassumptions that form the foundation for modern economics and the role ofcorporations in the world.I explore methods of transforming CSR by employing the thought ofMohandas Gandhi. I pay particular attention to Gandhi’s critique ofindustrialization and principle of swadeshi (self-sufficiency) …

Liability For Product Design In Ohio - A First Step Toward Solution, Edgar A. Strause, James H. Hedden

Akron Law Review

This article concerns an area of the law of strict liability in tort which is now emerging from an embryonic stage in Ohio - namely, a manufacturer's liability for conscious design choices in developing its product. It is the thesis of this article that in the recent case of Temple v. Wean United, Inc., the Ohio Supreme Court has taken a major step toward a solution to the inherent difficulties in passing judgment upon the reasonableness of a manufacturer's conscious design choices. In doing so, the court has simultaneously lessened the otherwise open-ended exposure of manufacturers to liability concerning …

Ohio Supreme Court Symposium

Akron Law Review

During the 1981-1982 term the Ohio Supreme Court rendered 250 written opinions on a wide range of topics from wiretapping to the liability of landlords for injuries. In several cases, individuals gained significant legal rights in dealing with business and others. In addition, there were some significant changes in the law governing municipal sovereignty and immunity. This symposium will not attempt to cover all decisions of the Ohio Supreme Court, but rather to highlight some of the major decisions which affect Ohioans.

The High Price Of Poverty: A Study Of How The Majority Of Current Court System Procedures For Collecting Court Costs And Fees, As Well As Fines, Have Failed To Adhere To Established Precedent And The Constitutional Guarantees They Advocate., Trevor J. Calligan

Trevor J Calligan

No abstract provided.

Definitions, Religion, And Free Exercise Guarantees, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the free exercise of religion. Non-religious practices do not receive those same protections, which makes the ability to distinguish between religious and non-religious practices important. Regrettably, members of the Court have been unable to agree about how to distinguish the religious from the non-religious—sometimes, the implicit criteria focus on the sincerity of the beliefs, sometimes the strength of the beliefs or the role that they play in an individual’s life, and sometimes the kind of beliefs. In short, the Court has virtually guaranteed an incoherent jurisprudence by sending contradictory signals with …

Recent Development: Espina V. Jackson: The Local Government Tort Claims Act Limits Local Government's Liability For Constitutional Tort Claims Committed By Its Employees; Local Government Employees Acting With Actual Malice Are Liable For Their Own Torts; And Multiple Wrongful Death Actions Arising From The Same Underlying Conduct May Be Aggregated For Purposes Of The Damages Cap, Kristin E. Shields

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that the damages cap of the Local Government Tort Claims Act (“LGTCA”) limits a local government’s liability for damages caused by an employee’s tortious act in violation of the state constitution. Espina v. Jackson, 442 Md. 311, 317, 112 A.3d 442, 446 (2015). The court also held that this limitation does not contradict the supremacy of the state constitution. Id. at 335, 112 A.3d at 456. Furthermore, the court held the LGTCA damages cap is not an unreasonable restriction on the right to remedy under Article 19 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. …

Is An Apartment A Nuisance?, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

In an ongoing Texas lawsuit, some homeowners allege that a nearby apartment building will constitute a nuisance. This article asserts that courts should generally reject nuisance claims against multifamily housing, based on the public interest in favor of increased housing supply and infill development.

What Can Corporations Teach Governments About Democratic Equality?, Tom W. Bell

Tom W. Bell

Democracies place great faith in the principle of one-person/one-vote. Business corporations and other private entities, in contrast, typically operate under the one-share/one-vote rule, allocating control in proportion to ownership. Why the difference? In times past, we might have cited the differing ends of public and private institutions. Whereas public democracies aim at promoting the general welfare of an entire political community, private entities aim at more specific goals, such as generating profits or managing a cooperative residence. As business entities have grown in size and in the range of services they provide, however, the distinction between public and private governance …

Bubbles (Or, Some Reflections On The Basic Laws Of Human Relations), Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Revisiting Curd V. Mosaic Fertilizer, Llc. A Perversion Of Private Standing Under Section 376.313 Of Florida’S Pollution Discharge Prevention And Recovery Act, Levi L. Wilkes

Levi L Wilkes

No abstract provided.

Overview Of A City’S Tort Liability Duties To Maintain And Protect Local Government Services From Sea Level Rise: Poquoson Case Study, Alex Horning

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

“Takings” Liability For Vacating Roads In Flood-Prone Areas: Poquoson Case Study, Kelci Block

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Institutes Of Higher Education, Safety Swords, And Privacy Shields: Reconciling Ferpa And The Common Law, Stephanie D. Humphries

Stephanie D Humphries

In light of the Virginia Tech shootings, this Note argues that both FERPA and the common law contain internal tensions regarding safety and privacy that neither Congress nor the courts have adequately reconciled, and that important discrepancies regarding information sharing exist between IHEs' practices, the common law's demands, and FERPA's limitations.

Part I provides background on FERPA and argues that FERPA's emergency exception is too narrow and confusing, so that IHEs default to the nondisclosure option rather than disclosing information to third parties, such as parents, when students threaten to harm themselves or others. At the same time, FERPA's tax …

Cold Comfort Pharmacy: Pharmacist Tort Liability For Conscientious Refusals To Dispense Emergency Contraception, Kristen Marttila Gast

ExpressO

The past several years have seen an increasing number of pharmacists refuse to dispense emergency contraception, an effective, post-coital form of contraception, on the grounds that the drug violates their personal beliefs. This Article addresses the impact of those pharmacist refusals under existing principles of tort law. The Article draws on existing pharmacy case law, state-specific refusal clauses, and ethics statements promulgated by professional pharmacy associations to investigate whether pharmacists have a legal duty to dispense emergency contraception, notwithstanding religious or ethical objections. Concluding that in most states, such a legal duty does exist, the Article develops a “wrongful conception” …

Accrual Of Causes Of Action In Virginia, James W. Ellerman

University of Richmond Law Review

This article will examine major issues in Virginia law affecting the accrual of causes of action, specifically in the contexts of contract, tort, and property. In addition to surveying the basic accrual requirements for each area of law, this article will look more deeply into several specific issues that guide an accrual analysis particularly the distinction between causes and rights of action, as well as the continuous treatment, discovery, and economic loss rules.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

The Conditional Effects Of Ideology And Institutional Structure On Judicial Voting In State Supreme Courts, Jeff L. Yates, Paul Brace, Brent Boyea

ExpressO

Two enormously influential perspectives on courts offer fundamentally different predictions about court outcomes and the effects of judge ideology on those outcomes. Well-known to political scientists studying courts, the ideological voting (IV) literature argues that judge ideology is a strong predictor of court outcomes and that those outcomes should be proximate to the policy preferences of courts. Less known to political scientists but highly influential, the law and economics perspective (LE) focuses on settlement behavior of litigants who try to minimize costs and thus estimate likely outcomes in court, and settle simpler cases pre-trial. In this case selection process litigants …

Wrongful Discharge: The Use Of Federal Law As A Source Of Public Policy, Nancy M. Modesitt

All Faculty Scholarship

Wrongful discharge in violation of public policy circumscribes the employment at-will doctrine by prohibiting employers from firing employees who engage in conduct that is deemed to be protected by state or federal public policy. While much has been written about the pros and cons of such wrongful discharge claims, to date no scholarship has focused on the problems that arise when the source of public policy is a federal rather than state statute. This article analyzes the historical and current approaches to the use of federal statutes as a source of public policy to protect employees against discharge, concluding that …

“It’S The [Tort System], Stupid:” Consumer Deductibles; How To More Equitably Distribute The Risks Of Medical Malpractice And Adequately Compensate Victims Without Statutory Damage Caps., Bradford Luke Ledbetter

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Do Institutions Really Matter? Assessing The Impact Of State Judicial Structures On Citizen Litigiousness, Jeff L. Yates, Paul Brace, Holley Tankersley

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Quiet Demise Of Deference To Custom: Malpractice Law At The Millenium, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

According to conventional wisdom, tort law allows physicians to set their own standard of care. While defendants in ordinary tort actions are expected to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances, physicians traditionally have needed only to conform to the customs of their peers. However, judicial deference to physician customs is eroding. Gradually, quietly and relentlessly, state courts are withdrawing this legal privilege. Already, a dozen states have expressly rejected deference to medical customs and another nine, although not directly addressing the role of custom, have rephrased their standard of care in terms of the reasonable physician, rather than compliance with …

Separation Of Powers Conflicts In The "Reform" Of Arkansas Workers' Compensation Law, J. Thomas Sullivan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.