Torts Commons^™

Affirmative Duty And Constitutional Tort, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

The Constitution ordinarily places only negative restrictions on government and does not require affirmative acts to assist individuals. The statutory vehicle for most constitutional tort litigation, 42 U.S.C. section 1983, echoes this constitutional principle. It extends liability to "[e]very person who ... [under color of state law] subjects, or causes to be subjected, any ... person" to the deprivation of federal rights, and makes no provision for a duty on governmental defendants to stop others from harming the plaintiff.

For some courts this principle disposes of affirmative duty claims forthwith. A noteworthy example is the recent seventh circuit case Bowers …

Res Ipsa Loquitur And Medical Malpractice In Georgia: A Reassessment, Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

Part II of this Article addresses the threshold issue of when a court may consider a medical accident as one that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence. This part criticizes the blanket rejection of res ipsa loquitur in Georgia malpractice opinions. Judicial hostility toward res ipsa loquitur in these cases is based in large part on a misunderstanding of the so-called presumption of due care. This part then explains how an inference of negligence may be harmonized with traditional fault-based malpractice doctrine. Finally, this part addresses judicial concerns about the sufficiency of evidence. It is argued that …

Defamation In Georgia Local Government Law: A Brief History, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Whether it be contact between local government officers themselves, or between officer and citizen, or between officer and news media, or between media and government itself, the potential for defamatory publications is awesome. Historically, therefore, in the defamation law of any state, a considerable number of the cases typically arise out of the local government process. Indeed, no less a case than New York Times v. Sullivan itself is but modern confirmation of a traditional setting for defamation controversy. Georgia local government law likewise contains its share of defamation disagreements. At an early date, many of the state's common law …

Causation In Constitutional Torts, Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

The issue of causation is fundamental to every constitutional tort action. Money damages are not recoverable unless the defendant is found to have caused the plaintiff to be deprived of a constitutional right and that deprivation is the cause of some harm. In several recent decisions the Supreme Court has seized upon the language of causation as a means of restricting constitutional tort liability. In Monell v. Department of Social Services, for example, the Court based its rejection of respondeat superior on the implicit meaning of the term "causes." The concept of causation in a constitutional tort context thus requires …