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Articles 1 - 25 of 25
Full-Text Articles in Litigation
Negligent Entrustment In Gun Industry Litigation: A Primer, Kate E. Britt
Negligent Entrustment In Gun Industry Litigation: A Primer, Kate E. Britt
Law Librarian Scholarship
Deep pocket jurisprudence, where plaintiffs name corporations as codefendants of less wealthy individual tortfeasors, is not uncommon in tort litigation. When the plaintiffs are victims of gun violence and the corporate defendants are firearms manufacturers, however, these suits are particularly controversial. Instead of aiming to make the victims whole, these suits are opposed (or supported) as attempts to regulate the firearms industry on a widespread basis. This article explores some of the resources available to understand the recent history of suits against firearms manufacturers.
Retaliatory Rico And The Puzzle Of Fraudulent Claiming, Nora Freeman Engstrom
Retaliatory Rico And The Puzzle Of Fraudulent Claiming, Nora Freeman Engstrom
Michigan Law Review
Over the past century, the allegation that the tort liability system incentivizes legal extortion and is chock-full of fraudulent claims has dominated public discussion and prompted lawmakers to ever-more-creatively curtail individuals’ incentives and opportunities to seek redress. Unsatisfied with these conventional efforts, in recent years, at least a dozen corporate defendants have “discovered” a new fraud-fighting tool. They’ve started filing retaliatory RICO suits against plaintiffs and their lawyers and experts, alleging that the initiation of certain non meritorious litigation constitutes racketeering activity— while tort reform advocates have applauded these efforts and exhorted more “courageous” companies to follow suit. Curiously, though, …
The Two Faces Of Janus: The Jurisprudential Past And New Beginning Of Rule 10b-5, John Patrick Clayton
The Two Faces Of Janus: The Jurisprudential Past And New Beginning Of Rule 10b-5, John Patrick Clayton
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and its implementing Rule 10b-5 are the primary antifraud provisions for both private and public enforcement of the federal securities laws. Neither the statute nor the rule expressly provides for a private right of action, but federal courts have long recognized such an implied right, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has supported the implied private right of action as a “necessary supplement” to its own efforts. However, after a decade of applying an expansive interpretation to Section 10(b), in the early 1970s the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrowly interpret this implied …
Copyright And The Vagueness Doctrine, Bradley E. Abruzzi
Copyright And The Vagueness Doctrine, Bradley E. Abruzzi
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Constitution's void-for-vagueness doctrine is itself vaguely stated. The doctrine does little to describe at what point vague laws-other than those that are entirely standardless-become unconstitutionally vague. Rather than explore this territory, the Supreme Court has identified three collateral factors that affect its inclination to invalidate a law for vagueness: (1) whether the law burdens the exercise of constitutional rights, (2) whether the law is punitive in nature, and (3) whether the law overlays a defendant-protective scienter requirement. Measured against these factors, copyright law does not meet the vagueness doctrine's minimum requirement of fair notice to the public. Copyright, by …
Platitudes About Product Stewardship In Torts: Continuing Drug Research And Education, Lars Noah
Platitudes About Product Stewardship In Torts: Continuing Drug Research And Education, Lars Noah
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
This Article focuses on one emerging aspect of tort litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers that, if it gained traction, portends a dramatic (and potentially counterproductive) expansion in the prescription drug industry's exposure to liability. The traditional theories of products liability--mismanufacture, defective design, and inadequate warnings--no longer exhaust the potential obligations of sellers. In addition to increasingly popular claims of misrepresentation and negligent marketing, which seem more like extensions of the three defect categories than entirely novel theories, a growing chorus of commentators would impose on pharmaceutical manufacturers a broader duty to test and educate (aspects of what they call an obligation …
Second Best Damage Action Deterrence, Margo Schlanger
Second Best Damage Action Deterrence, Margo Schlanger
Articles
Potential defendants faced with the prospect of tort or tort-like damage actions can reduce their liability exposure in a number of ways. Prior scholarship has dwelled primarily on the possibility that they may respond to the threat of liability by augmenting the amount of care they take.1 Defendants (I limit myself to defendants for simplicity) will increase their expenditures on care, so the theory goes, when those expenditures yield sufficient liability-reducing dividends; more care decreases liability exposure by simultaneously making it less likely that the actors will be found to have behaved tortiously in the event of an accident and …
The Role Of "Stories" In Civil Jury Judgments, Reid Hastie
The Role Of "Stories" In Civil Jury Judgments, Reid Hastie
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A brief review of psychological theories of juror decision making is followed by an introduction to "explanation-based" theories of judgment. Prior empirical studies of explanation-based processes in juror decision making are then reviewed. An original empirical study of jurors' judgments concerning liability for punitive damages is presented to illustrate the explanation-based approach to civil decisions.
The Lawsuit Lottery: Only The Lawyers Win, Michigan Law Review
The Lawsuit Lottery: Only The Lawyers Win, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Book Notice about The Lawsuit Lottery: Only the Lawyers Win by Jeffrey O'Connell
A Peek In Pandora's Box: Folding Carton And The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination In Civil Antitrust Actions, David D. Gregg
A Peek In Pandora's Box: Folding Carton And The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination In Civil Antitrust Actions, David D. Gregg
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The purpose of this article is to examine the dimensions of an individual's Fifth Amendment privilege in a civil antitrust action where the person has not yet been guaranteed that criminal prosecution is no longer possible. Two issues are apparent: first, under what conditions may a civil antitrust defendant properly invoke the privilege; second, if a civil antitrust plaintiff seeks to discover information privileged under the Fifth Amendment, what is the proper response to the problem? Folding Carton provides an excellent example of the process of antitrust litigation and demonstrates the tensions involved. Using that case as an example, the …
Concurrent Causation In Insurance Contracts, William Conant Brewer Jr.
Concurrent Causation In Insurance Contracts, William Conant Brewer Jr.
Michigan Law Review
A great deal of work and thought has been devoted to concurrent causation problems in the field of torts. Less attention has been paid to the insurance cases, and no serious effort has been made to formulate the separate rules applicable to them. It is the thesis of this article that concurrent causation problems which arise under an insurance contract must be handled somewhat differently from those which arise in connection with tort litigation, and that the tendency to borrow rules of law from the larger tort field and apply them to the smaller volume of insurance cases can only …
Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep
Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep
Michigan Law Review
The emphasis given by the mass media of communication to some of the dramatic problems arising from the use of nuclear energy unfortunately has diverted attention from some of the matters about which something can be done by lawyers, administrators, and legislators without the necessity of complicated international negotiations between various parties to the "Cold War." The headlines leave the uninformed, and perhaps often also the informed, public with the impression that even for radiation injuries the important problems all deal with such questions as: (1) Will only a few or many millions of people survive an all-out nuclear war? …
Corporations - Shareholders - Majority Liability For Improper Stock Redemption By Corporation And For Misrepresentations In Private Stock Purchases From Minority Holders, James M. Tobin
Michigan Law Review
In 1942 a seemingly innocuous suit was brought against the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Corporation to determine the propriety of the alteration of a stock redemption. In 1955 Judge Leahy of the Federal District Court for Delaware handed down an opinion on the damages and relief to be given in the case in what he hopefully termed was the final phase of this famous litigation. It is the purpose of this comment to appraise the basis of the recovery allowed by Judge Leahy. Two readily distinguishable problems will be treated: (1) the nature of relief from a stock redemption called by fiduciaries …
Fiduciary Aministration-Executors And Aministrators-Inventory Not A Condition Precedent To Recovery Of Assets, Carl S. Krueger S.Ed.
Fiduciary Aministration-Executors And Aministrators-Inventory Not A Condition Precedent To Recovery Of Assets, Carl S. Krueger S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
In a suit by an administrator to recover funds claimed to be part of the decedent's estate, the defendant's answer alleged that the suit had been commenced prior to compliance with a statute requiring an inventory of the assets of the estate. On appeal by the administrator from the trial court's holding that filing an inventory of a claim is a condition precedent to a suit thereon, held, reversed. While an inventory is the basis of subsequent probate proceedings, title to personal assets of the decedent vests in the administrator when he qualifies, and he may sue on claims …
Agency-Election To Sue Undisclosed Principal Or Agent, Alan C. Boyd S. Ed.
Agency-Election To Sue Undisclosed Principal Or Agent, Alan C. Boyd S. Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff brought action against a principal and his agent to foreclose a mechanic's lien on the principal's real property, alleging that he had expended labor and materials in the improvement of the principal's land pursuant to a contract between himself and the agent. Though plaintiff joined the agent as a party defendant, he did not pray for relief against him. Both defendants moved to dismiss the action. Held, action dismissed as to the agent. Whether or not the principal was disclosed at the time the contract arose, the action was properly dismissed as against the agent. If the principal …
Appeal And Error-Right Of Defendant To New Trial Where Plaintiff Is Entitled To All Or None And Verdict Is Intermediate, Bruce L. Moore S.Ed.
Appeal And Error-Right Of Defendant To New Trial Where Plaintiff Is Entitled To All Or None And Verdict Is Intermediate, Bruce L. Moore S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
In an action on an express contrast, plaintiff sued for $1750, representing the agreed 5 per cent commission on the sale of real estate. Defendant denied the validity of the contract, and there was no issue as to the amount of liability if liability existed. The instruction to the jury was that plaintiff was entitled to 5 per cent commission if entitled to recover. The jury returned a verdict for $875, half the amount claimed. Defendant's motion for a new trial was denied. Held, although the verdict was unauthorized as to plaintiff, there was no error as to defendant …
Federal Procedure-Impleader Under Rule I4-Lack Of Diversity Of Citizenship Between Original Plaintiff And Third-Party Defendant, Frank E. Roegge S.Ed.
Federal Procedure-Impleader Under Rule I4-Lack Of Diversity Of Citizenship Between Original Plaintiff And Third-Party Defendant, Frank E. Roegge S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, a citizen of Connecticut sued defendant, a citizen of Ohio, for injuries received when the car in which plaintiff was a passenger collided with a truck driven by defendant. Defendant removed the case from a Connecticut state court to a federal district court and then obtained an order citing plaintiff's husband, a citizen of Connecticut and the driver of the car in which plaintiff was riding, as a third-party defendant under Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Defendant had no claim against the third party by Connecticut substantive law which does not recognize contribution between tort-feasors. …
Current Phases Of Derivative Actions Against Directors, Ralph M. Carson
Current Phases Of Derivative Actions Against Directors, Ralph M. Carson
Michigan Law Review
In assuming to discuss in this place some of the current phases of stockholders' derivative actions against directors of corporations, I shall try to keep a course between two extremes. On the one hand, it is of little use to fulfill the easy duty of enunciating general rules of law, stated in such a form that both parties in a contested cause may equally invoke them. Nor, on the other hand, is it of much value to fill an hour's time with details of cases recently decided which, although interesting in themselves, resist general application. What I shall try instead …
Federal Courts - Jurisdiction - Diversity Of Citizenship - Realignment Of Parties, Michigan Law Review
Federal Courts - Jurisdiction - Diversity Of Citizenship - Realignment Of Parties, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, a New York corporation, was trustee under a mortgage deed to secure a bond issue executed by A, an Indiana corporation, in 1902. In 1906, B, an Indiana corporation, was formed, its franchise providing, inter alia, that after the expiration of twenty-five years, the company should be wound up and its property conveyed to C, the city of Indianapolis, subject to B's "outstanding legal obligations." In 1913, A leased all of its plant property to B for a term of ninety-nine years, B agreeing to pay as rental the interest on A's outstanding bonded …
The Measure Of Recovery In Actions For The Infringement Of Copyright, Julian Caplan
The Measure Of Recovery In Actions For The Infringement Of Copyright, Julian Caplan
Michigan Law Review
Since the present federal copyright statute was enacted in 1909, and especially quite recently, there have been repeated attempts at drastic modification of the law. Certain groups contend that the present statutory provisions are not of sufficient protection to the copyright proprietor, whereas other groups contend that the extent of the protection is entirely unwarranted. One of the chief phases of controversy has involved the measure of recovery in suits for infringement. The issue is of fundamental importance, since the measure of damages determines to a large extent how effective the other provisions of the statute will be. Whether, under …
Negligence - Negligent Failure Of Principal To Promulgate Adequate Regulations For Safe Discharge Of Pupils, John M. Ulman
Negligence - Negligent Failure Of Principal To Promulgate Adequate Regulations For Safe Discharge Of Pupils, John M. Ulman
Michigan Law Review
The infant plaintiff, during the dismissal of her class, was pushed or thrown from an exterior stairway by a fellow pupil. As a consequence she sustained personal injuries. She sued the city, the board of education, the principal of the school, and the teacher. Held, that whether the principal was negligent in failing to promulgate more adequate regulations for the safe discharge of the pupils was a question of fact for the jury. Thompson v. Board of Education of City of New York, 255 App. Div. 786, 6 N. Y. S. (2d) 921 (1938).
Wills - Statute Of Nonclaim As Bar To Contingent Claim
Wills - Statute Of Nonclaim As Bar To Contingent Claim
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, the receiver of an insolvent state bank, filed a claim against the estate of deceased who had been a stockholder in the bank. The estate had been closed for twelve years when the claim was filed, the bank not having become insolvent until eight years after the decedent's death. The state constitution provided double liability for the stockholders of the bank to its creditors. Defendant urged that the claim was barred by the statute of nonclaim. Held, the claim is not barred, for the constitutional liability was not a "claim or demand, contingent or absolute," against the stockholder's …
Bills And Notes - Rights Of Holder Of Bill Against Drawee
Bills And Notes - Rights Of Holder Of Bill Against Drawee
Michigan Law Review
An employee of the plaintiff, payee of a check drawn on the defendant bank, indorsed the check without authority and cashed it, retaining the proceeds. The check was sent through the clearance to the defendant bank and charged to the drawer. The plaintiff brought suit against the bank by a complaint in the form of damages for the conversion of a check. It was adjudged for the plaintiff and the defendant appealed. On appeal, the plaintiff insisted that the payment of the check amounted to an acceptance by the defendant bank and that a liability to the plaintiff as payee …
Limitation Of Actions-Effect Of Fraudulent Concealment
Limitation Of Actions-Effect Of Fraudulent Concealment
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sued in equity for a money judgment on defendant's promissory notes. Defendant had fraudulently represented that her husband's estate was liable on these notes, inducing plaintiff to sue the estate and thus delay for more than six years in starting suit against defendant. Plaintiff had sued defendant at law on the notes, defendant had pleaded the statute of limitations, and plaintiff had discontinued. Held, that plaintiff could recover a money judgment in equity, since the remedy at law was barred by the statute of limitations. Dodds v. McColgan (N. Y. App. Div., 1930) 241 N. Y. S. 584.
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Quasi-Contractual Obligations Of Municipal Corporations, Jerome C. Knowlton
Articles
We have constructive fraud, constructive trusts, constructive notice, and why not constructive contract, a contractual obligation existing in contemplation of law, in the absence of any agreement express or implied from facts? With this apology we shall use the term quasi contract as covering an obligation created by law and enforceable by an action ex contractu. We are not for the present interested in the circumstances which may give rise to this obligation as between individuals; nor as between an individual and a private corporation, or quasi public corporation, so-called, as a railroad or other public utility. In these cases …
Contract Limitations Of The Common Carrier's Liability, Edwin C. Goddard
Contract Limitations Of The Common Carrier's Liability, Edwin C. Goddard
Articles
When Mr. Justice NELSON, in the New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. Merchants Bank, speaking of the power of a common carrier by special agreement to restrict his obligation, said for the court: "We are unable to perceive any well founded objection to the restriction," he opened the way for an amount of litigation which, in volume and expense, both to carriers and shippers, scarcely finds its equal on any other question. The Supreme Court of North Carolina was well within the limit when it said: "The right of a common carrier to limit or diminish his general liability by …