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Articles 1 - 30 of 37
Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence
The Impact Of Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans On Prenatal Tort Claims, Aviva K. Diamond
The Impact Of Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans On Prenatal Tort Claims, Aviva K. Diamond
Michigan Law Review
In June 2022, the Supreme Court revoked Americans’ fundamental right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. However, the Court said nothing about how its decision would impact tort claims related to reproductive care. Many states have since adopted near-total or early-gestational- age abortion bans, which has not only diminished access to reproductive care, but has also incidentally impaired the ability of plaintiffs to bring long-recognized prenatal tort claims. Prenatal tort claims—wrongful pregnancy, birth, and life—allow victims to recover when a medical professional negligently performs reproductive or prenatal care. This Note identifies the impact that post-Dobbs …
Malpractice Suits And Physician Apologies In Cancer Care, Eugene Chung, Jill R. Horwitz, John A.E. Pottow, Reshma Jagsi
Malpractice Suits And Physician Apologies In Cancer Care, Eugene Chung, Jill R. Horwitz, John A.E. Pottow, Reshma Jagsi
Articles
Conside the following case: The patient is a 44-year-old woman who presents for radiation treatment of an isolated locoregional recurrence of breat cancer in her chest wall, 3 years after undergoing masectomy. At the time of diagnosis, she had T2N2M0 disease, with four of 15 lymph nodes involved with tumor. She received a masectomy with negative margins and appropriate chemotherapy, but none of her physicians talked to her about postmasectomy radiation therapy, which would clearly have been indicated to reduce her risk of locoregional failure and would have been expected to improve her likelihood of survival. She asks the radiation …
"What Do I Do About This Word, 'Unavoidable'?": Resolving Textual Ambiguity In The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, Jason Lafond
"What Do I Do About This Word, 'Unavoidable'?": Resolving Textual Ambiguity In The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, Jason Lafond
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The quote in the title of this Essay comes from Justice Breyer, expressing his frustration with the language of section 22(b)(1) of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Justice Breyer made this comment during the October 12, 2010, oral argument in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, Inc., a case about the availability of state tort claims based on vaccine design defects. The question before the Court was whether that section expressly preempts such claims against vaccine manufacturers "if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions …
The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz
The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz
Articles
Professor Epstein has long promoted replacing tort-based malpractice law with a new regime based on contracts. In Mortal Peril, he grounded his normative arguments in favor of such a shift in the positive, doctrinal history of charitable immunity law. In this essay, in three parts, I critique Professor Epstein’s suggestion that a faulty set of interpretations in charitable immunity law led to our current reliance on tort for malpractice claims. First, I offer an alternative interpretation to Professor Epstein’s claim that one group of 19th and early 20th century cases demonstrates a misguided effort to protect donor wishes. Rather, I …
Why Don't Doctors & Lawyers (Strangers In The Night) Get Their Act Together?, Frances H. Miller
Why Don't Doctors & Lawyers (Strangers In The Night) Get Their Act Together?, Frances H. Miller
Michigan Law Review
Health care in America is an expensive, complicated, inefficient, tangled mess - everybody says so. Patients decry its complexity, health care executives bemoan its lack of coherence, physicians plead for universal coverage to simplify their lives so they can just get on with taking care of patients, and everyone complains about health care costs. The best health care in the world is theoretically available here, but we deliver and pay for it in some of the world's worst ways. Occam's razor ("Among competing hypotheses, favor the simplest one") is of little help here. There are no simple hypotheses - everything …
"Countering Stereotypes." Review Of Medical Malpractice And The American Jury: Confronting The Myths About Jury Incompetence, Deep Pockets, And Outrageous Damage Awards, By N. Vidmar, Samuel R. Gross
Reviews
The story of The Medical Malpractice Trial has a place in popular American legal culture, somewhere on the shelf with Killers Who Got Off on Technicalities. The plot is simple and tragic. The protagonist is the Doctor, a good man with a flaw: He tries too hard. In the process, he makes an innocent mistake or believes he can prevent the unpreventable. In any event, he fails and the Patient dies or is permanently injured. For this unintentional error the Doctor is crucified, by the vengeful anger of the Patient or her survivors, the avarice of the plaintiffs' lawyer, the …
A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl
A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note sets forth a model statute that limits high damage awards, yet will withstand the rigors of judicial scrutiny. After presenting a brief background of the medical malpractice crisis in Part I, Part II outlines the standards of equal protection review that the courts are presently using. The Note then focuses on the constitutional challenges to caps on medical malpractice liability in Part III. Part IV discusses the values and interests that were found to be dispositive in the courts' decisions. Finally, after analyzing the criteria that must be met to ensure that a legislative limitation will survive judicial …
Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack
Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Note examines the broad, underlying themes of tort theory and argues that, in general, the tort system's primary responsibility should be compensation, rather than deterrence of risk taking. In so far as the production of goods and services causes injury, such losses should be shared and spread as widely and proportionately as possible. Part II discusses the history and nature of the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Part III evaluates the numerous systemic solutions suggested by various commentators. Finally, Part IV proposes a new solution: first party, no-fault medical maloccurrence insurance (MMI).
The Unborn Plaintiff, David A. Gordon
The Unborn Plaintiff, David A. Gordon
Michigan Law Review
It is almost twenty-five years since Professor Winfield's article "The Unborn Child" was published. The development of this area of the law during the past quarter century is probably summed up in the distinction between that title and the one to this article.
Radiation Injuries: Statute Of Limitations Inadequacies In Tort Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Thomas W. Van Dyke
Radiation Injuries: Statute Of Limitations Inadequacies In Tort Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Thomas W. Van Dyke
Michigan Law Review
Some injuries from overexposure to radiation may manifest themselves within existing statutory limitations periods, at least under some liberal ( or loose) judicial interpretations. Many injurious manifestations, however, will not arise for a great many years after exposure; it is the thesis of this article that some new legislative solutions must be adopted. Limiting the right to sue to the existing time periods as construed by many courts will be manifestly unfair to plaintiffs. A blanket, unconditional extension of the time period to as much as thirty years for all cases regardless of the local rule as to when the …
Radiation Injuries And Time Limitations In Workmen's Compensation Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Walter R. Allan
Radiation Injuries And Time Limitations In Workmen's Compensation Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Walter R. Allan
Michigan Law Review
The increasing use of radioactive materials and radiation-producing devices in industry and elsewhere makes it clear that injuries from exposure to radiation must be anticipated. It becomes relevant, therefore, to inquire into the extent to which the present workmen's compensation statutes will be able to cope with the injuries which may arise from the use of this new source of energy.
Damages-Pain And Suffering-Use Of A Mathematical Formula, Thomas D. Heekin S .Ed.
Damages-Pain And Suffering-Use Of A Mathematical Formula, Thomas D. Heekin S .Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Measurement of damages for pain and suffering is, in a sense, an attempt to measure the unmeasurable; yet as long as our law recognizes a right to recover for pain and suffering, the jury or judge must arrive at some concrete figure. The traditional approach of simply instructing the jury that they should arrive at a reasonable amount provides little, if any, guidance. The question is whether this approach, nevertheless, remains the best of a bad lot of alternatives. If more guidance is desirable, what can be accomplished within the framework of our present system? The mathematical formula discussed in …
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? …
Shartel & Plant: The Law Of Medical Practice, C. W. Muehlberger
Shartel & Plant: The Law Of Medical Practice, C. W. Muehlberger
Michigan Law Review
A Review of THE LAW OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. By Burke Shartel and Marcus L. Plant.
Torts - Obstruction Of A Civil Action - Coercion By A Medical Association To Preclude Availability Of Expert Testimony In A Medical Malpractice Action, William Y. Webb
Torts - Obstruction Of A Civil Action - Coercion By A Medical Association To Preclude Availability Of Expert Testimony In A Medical Malpractice Action, William Y. Webb
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff approached nine physicians in an attempt to secure an expert witness for a medical malpractice action. All nine refused, allegedly as a result of threats by the county medical association to expel them and cause a cancellation of their malpractice liability insurance if they testified. The association's actions stemmed from a finding by its "malpractice committee" that the malpractice defendant had not been negligent. Plaintiff then brought this action against the association to recover compensatory and punitive damages for obstruction of a civil action. On appeal from an order granting a motion for nonsuit, held, affirmed. No cause …
Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding
Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, suffering from bursitis in the right shoulder, received X-ray treatments from defendant physicians. Subsequent thereto, plaintiff's shoulder began to itch, scab, and blister for several years, a condition diagnosed as chronic radiodermatitis caused by the X-ray therapy. Approximately two years after the treatments, plaintiff was examined by a dermatologist who advised her to have her shoulder checked every six months because the area might become cancerous. Plaintiff then developed a severe "cancerphobia," an apprehension that she would ultimately develop cancer from the radiation burn. Plaintiff brought a malpractice suit against defendant physicians, seeking recovery for the physical injury and …
Gair & Cutler: Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy, Marcus L. Plant
Gair & Cutler: Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy, Marcus L. Plant
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy. By Harry A. Gair and A. S. Cutler.
Torts - Unauthorized Autopsy - Non-Survival Of Action, Lee H. Snyder
Torts - Unauthorized Autopsy - Non-Survival Of Action, Lee H. Snyder
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff's husband was struck and killed by a motorbus owned and operated by defendant municipality. The body was removed to a hospital maintained by defendant. Subsequently, at the request and direction of a physician employed by defendant, an autopsy was performed, apparently to determine whether the deceased had been drinking. During the examination certain organs were removed and destroyed. Plaintiff brought an action for damages on the ground that the mutilation was done without her consent and in violation of her legal right to the possession of the body. Plaintiff died while the action was pending, and her administrator continued …
Workmen's Compensation - Traumatic Neurosis Without Physical Injury, Irving L. Halpern
Workmen's Compensation - Traumatic Neurosis Without Physical Injury, Irving L. Halpern
Michigan Law Review
Appellee and his co-worker attempted to lower a suspended scaffold on which they were standing, whereupon the scaffold gave way and the coworker fell to his death. Appellee suffered only slight bruises on his leg, but as a result of seeing his fellow employee fall to his death, he sustained severe fright and shock which resulted in a traumatic neurosis preventing him from engaging in the normal duties of his occupation. The lower court awarded appellee judgment for permanent partial disability under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Law. On appeal, held, reversed. Appellee's condition was a mental disease and compensable …
Torts - Liability Of Physician Erroneously Certifying Insanity, Richard Z. Rosenfeld
Torts - Liability Of Physician Erroneously Certifying Insanity, Richard Z. Rosenfeld
Michigan Law Review
A physician certified plaintiff to be insane, when in fact she was sane; she was thereafter committed to a state sanitarium. Upon her release, she sued the physician for negligence in examination. Defendant's demurrer for failure to state a cause of action was sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. Quoting almost the entirety of an analogous 1900 decision from the same jurisdiction, the court held that defendant had owed no duty to plaintiff. Because the administration of the law "should not be obstructed by the fears of physicians that they may render themselves liable to suit," certifying physicians "should be …
Torts-Malpractice-Duty Of Drugless Healer To Refrain From Or Discontinue Treatment, Morton L. Simons
Torts-Malpractice-Duty Of Drugless Healer To Refrain From Or Discontinue Treatment, Morton L. Simons
Michigan Law Review
Defendant, a drugless healer licensed under statute as a sanipractor, undertook to treat plaintiff for what both parties realized was diabetes. Defendant followed standard sanipractic procedure, prescribing diets and baths. The treatment was unsuccessful, and plaintiff's health deteriorated greatly. Apparently on the theory that a sanipractor incurs no liability if he follows the accepted methods of his school, the trial court, notwithstanding jury's verdict for plaintiff, rendered judgment for defendant. On appeal, held, reversed and remanded, with directions to enter judgment on the verdict Where a drugless healer knows or should know that his method of treatment is not …
Negligence-Liability Of Hospital For Suicide Of Patient, Richard Darger
Negligence-Liability Of Hospital For Suicide Of Patient, Richard Darger
Michigan Law Review
Decedent, a patient in the advanced stages of labor awaiting transfer from the labor room to the delivery room of defendant hospital, opened a window, unhooked the screen and jumped or fell to her death below. It was assumed by the court that death was caused by intrapartum psychosis, a condition which plaintiff claimed was recognized by the medical profession as a hazard of childbirth. Decedent had exhibited no unusual symptoms and had previously been through two normal pregnancies. The jury was allowed to find defendant negligent in not providing for constant attendance and in failing to bar the window …
Practice And Procedure-Third-Party Practice-Subrogation And Contribution- Right Of Defendant To Join Physician Who Aggravated Lnjuries, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed.
Practice And Procedure-Third-Party Practice-Subrogation And Contribution- Right Of Defendant To Join Physician Who Aggravated Lnjuries, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
A brought an action against B for injuries suffered in an automobile accident and aggravation of those injuries by the negligent treatment of a physician, D. B filed a third-party complaint against D for malpractice contending that D was liable over to him for all or a part of the judgment recovered by A. D's motion to dismiss the third-party complaint for want of a sufficient cause of action was denied. On appeal, held, affirmed. A tort-feasor who has been held liable for injuries is subrogated to any right of action which the injured party may …
Habeas Corpus - Insane Persons - Torts - Civil Action For Obstruction Of Right To Test Legality Of Imprisonment, John P. Cofrin
Habeas Corpus - Insane Persons - Torts - Civil Action For Obstruction Of Right To Test Legality Of Imprisonment, John P. Cofrin
Michigan Law Review
Claimant had been adjudged insane and committed to a state hospital by order of the court. On March 6, 1936, he signed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, placed it in an envelope addressed to his attorney and left it with an employee of the hospital to be mailed. In the past claimant had written many letters asking for assistance to men in public life, who in turn annoyed claimant's wife. The superintendent of the hospital, therefore, complying with the request of claimant's wife that all his letters be sent to her, mailed her the letter containing the …
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Fraud - False Statement By Druggist As To Ingredients Of Prescription, Michigan Law Review
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Fraud - False Statement By Druggist As To Ingredients Of Prescription, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff purchased from the defendant a prescription calling for an ingredient free from mercury, to which plaintiff was allergic. Defendant intentionally, for want of the other ingredient, substituted a commercial compound containing mercury without notifying the purchaser. Subsequent applications caused inflammation, and plaintiff's doctor inquired as to whether mercury was an ingredient of the prescription. Defendant, knowing otherwise, replied in the negative. Further applications in reliance upon the statement caused more serious injury. The jury found the defendant negligent in filling the prescription, but a verdict was returned for the defendant on the ground that the injury was not foreseeable; …
Damages - Personal Injury - Negligent Aggravation By Injured Person, Michigan Law Review
Damages - Personal Injury - Negligent Aggravation By Injured Person, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
As a direct result of the defendant's negligence, "plaintiff fell and sustained injuries including a fracture of the pubic bone. Ten months later, knowing that she could not walk unassisted because the bone had not knit, plaintiff attempted to do so, fell and refractured the bone. Held, that plaintiff's negligence, found as a matter of law, was an "efficient intervening cause" making the defendant's negligence remote as to the aggravation of the injury. S.S. Kresge Co. v. Kenney, (App. D. C. 1936) 86 F. (2d) 651.
Torts -Temporary Insanity As A Defense
Torts -Temporary Insanity As A Defense
Michigan Law Review
While operating a bus owned by the corporate defendant the individual defendant suddenly became insane and lost control of the bus which struck a parked ice truck owned by the plaintiff McKay, and upon which the plaintiff Sforza was chopping ice. These actions were brought to recover for property damage and personal injuries thereby incurred. Held, in spite of the temporary insanity the individual defendant was legally responsible for the negligence, which is imputable also to the corporate defendant. Sforza v. Green Bus Lines, Inc., et al; McKay v. Same, (Munic. Ct. City of New York, 1934) 268 …
Torts - Death Act-Pecuniary Injury - Effect Of Incurable Disease
Torts - Death Act-Pecuniary Injury - Effect Of Incurable Disease
Michigan Law Review
Administratrix sued defendant hospital under the "death act" for having negligently caused the death of her husband. The negligence was admitted. Decedent was afflicted with myelitis, an incurable disease, which affected his spine and rendered him a helpless paralytic. Decedent had no ability to earn or support and would have been an object of constant care and expense. Held, the court should have directed verdict for defendant. Smith v. Presentation Academy of Aberdeen, (S. D. 1933) 248 N. W. 762.
Torts - Malpractice - Master And Servant
Torts - Malpractice - Master And Servant
Michigan Law Review
The plaintiff, on threat of discharge from employ of defendant in case of refusal, submitted to a physical examination by a physician retained by the defendant. In making the examination the physician negligently caused a hernia. Held, the suit was not barred by the one year period of limitation on actions for malpractice because no physician-patient relation had been established, there having been nothing more than an examination, and that for the sole benefit of the defendant. Defendant was liable for the acts of the physician on the basis of respondeat superior. New York Central R.R. v. Wiler …
Surgeon's Liability For Operation Without The Patient's Consent
Surgeon's Liability For Operation Without The Patient's Consent
Michigan Law Review
Under the maxim volenti non fit injuria, a surgeon may inflict upon the body of his patient what otherwise would amount to a technical battery. The consent of the patient justifies the application of force to his person. Zoterell v. Repp, 187 Mich. 319, 153 N.W. 692; Robinson v. Crotwell, 175 Ala. 194, 57 So. 23; King v. Carney, 85 Okla. 62, 204 Pac. 270; POLLOCK, TORTS, 159; BURDICK, LAW OF TORTS, 110; TORTS, RESTATEMENT No. 1, Sec. 66. A generally accepted limitation to this doctrine is that consent to the commission of an unlawful act …