Torts Commons^™

Torts, Charles O. Lorenson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Allen V. The United States Of America: The “Substantial” Connection Between Nuclear Fallout And Cancer, Daniel Swartzman, Tom Christoffel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Policy Over Metaphysics: Wrongful Birth And Wrongful Life In Harbeson V. Parke-Davis, Inc., Eric B. Schmidt

Seattle University Law Review

The recognition of the wrongful birth and wrongful life causes of action by the Washington State Supreme Court is supported by both policy rationales and legal theories. Wrongful birth and wrongful life causes of action receive support from traditional tort principles and, more important, further public policy by deterring negligent genetic counseling and negligent preconception medical treatment. This Note describes the legal history of these claims and analyzes several issues not addressed by the Washington court. In addition, this Note criticizes a more recent decision by the court, which limits wrongful conception causes of action, because that decision conflicts with …

The Design Defect Test In Washington: The Requisite Balance, Joshua J. Preece

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment examines Washington's application of the design defect consumer expectations test. Washington courts have been inconsistent during the recent transition in products liability law. A case in point is Conner v. Skagit Corp.," in which the plaintiff was allowed to proceed with a design defect cause of action while offering proof of only one factor from the consumer expectations test. Accordingly, this Comment suggests that design defect plaintiffs must offer proof of multiple factors that relate to the issue of defectiveness and reasonableness. This proposal will be discussed in light of regional and national products liability theory and …

Herskovits V. Group Health Cooperative: Negligent Creation Of A Substantial Risk Of Injury Is A Compensable Harm, Warner Miller

Seattle University Law Review

This Note commends the Herskovits court for recognizing the loss of-a-chance claim as a legitimate cause of action. Chance interests are worthy of the protection of tort law. We can be statistically certain that the destruction of chance interests in survival results in actual losses. The burden of such losses should not fall exclusively on the victim, particularly when the interfering conduct of the wrongdoer has deprived the individual victim of the ability to know and prove with certainty the value of the lost chance. The burden of the loss can be shifted in an equitable manner to the negligent …

Toward A Time-Of-Discovery Rule For The Statute Of Limitations In Latent Injury Cases In New York State , Steven L. White

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Traditional statutes of limitations begin to run when a cause of action first could have been maintained by the plaintiff. Yet when the wrongful act and the injury do not occur simultaneously, a complex problem arises: when does the cause of action accrue? This is a relevant problem is various toxic tort lawsuits. There are various responses to the question of when the cause of action accrues: (1) when the wrongful act occurs, (2) when the plaintiff is injured, (3) when the plaintiff discovers his injury, and (4) when the plaintiff discovers the connection between the injury and the defendant's …

Personal Jurisdiction Over Publishers In Defamation Actions: A Current Assessment, Elizabeth A. Malloy

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Torts, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

About the only thing a teacher of tort law can be sure of is that each year he or she will witness new efforts, some successful and most not, to extend the reach and effect of the law of private wrongs. Last year's Survey article analyzed a wide range of tort issues and while New York courts handed down fewer tort opinions of broad implication this Survey year, there is much to study and to apply in future litigation. As always, tort law is a somewhat quixotic but nonetheless valid barometer of shifting societal and judicial values about the nature …

Asbestos: The Private Management Of A Public Problem, Harry H. Wellington

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the existing judicial system in America, asbestos litigation has reached epidemic proportions. It is extravagantly expensive and grotesquely inefficient. Conceivably billions of dollars are at stake in this group effort, and the fair treatment of thousands of very sick people, and thousands more who one day will be ill as a result of asbestos, may turn on the success of this private initiative (the Wellington Group) to design a private agency that will fairly and effectively manage the bulk of asbestos claims and asbestos product liability litigation. Section I provides background information on the asbestos problem: from the material …

Asbestos: The Private Management Of A Public Problem, Harry H. Wellington

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the existing judicial system in America, asbestos litigation has reached epidemic proportions. It is extravagantly expensive and grotesquely inefficient. Conceivably billions of dollars are at stake in this group effort, and the fair treatment of thousands of very sick people, and thousands more who one day will be ill as a result of asbestos, may turn on the success of this private initiative (the Wellington Group) to design a private agency that will fairly and effectively manage the bulk of asbestos claims and asbestos product liability litigation. Section I provides background information on the asbestos problem: from the material …

The Discovery Rule: Fairness In Toxic Tort Statutes Of Limitations, Bill Shaw, Pat Cihon, Malcolm Myers

Cleveland State Law Review

The costs associated with the disposal of toxic waste can be classified in two ways. The first category is made up of environmental losses such as the contamination of rivers, lakes, and ground water with the resulting destruction of aquatic life, wildlife, and vegetation and includes expenses incurred in cleanup. The second category is comprised of losses sustained by individuals and includes both property damage and physical injury resulting from direct or indirect contact with hazardous wastes. Injured individuals have two options in their pursuit of compensation: statutory and common law. This Article argues that statutory recourse is not only …

Battling A Receding Tort Frontier: Constitutional Attacks On Medical Malpractice Laws, David Randolph Smith

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liability Of Bail Bondsmen Under Section 1983

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Travelers Checks, James J. White

Articles

A. Travelers Checks Defined 1. Courts have variously described travelers checks as certificates of deposit, negotiable instruments, securities, cash, and cashier's checks. 2. The most persuasive analysis seems to treat travelers checks as cashier's checks on which the issuer is both the drawer and the drawee, the purchaser once he has countersigned is the payee, and both the purchaser and the next recipient are indorsers.

Design For Challenge: The Kentucky Statute Of Repose For Improvements To Real Property, Jayne Moore

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Torts, Jayne Moore Waldrop

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Federal Tort Claims At The Agency Level: The Ftca Administrative Process, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Tort actions against the federal government and its agencies are currently governed by the FTCA and various other statutes, agency rules and procedures. Claims against the government are increasing rapidly, and the agencies enjoy broad settlement authority, often at the expense of coordination among the appropriate statutes. This Article examines the various procedures allowed and those that are actually practiced by the agencies. The author points out that, though claims officers are supposed to be fair-minded, the process can take on an adversarial nature, often a prelude to litigation rather than settlement. He proposes that the current processes be made …

The German And British Roots Of American Workers' Compensation Systems: When Is An Intentional Act Intentional, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Property Rules, Liability Rules, And Adverse Possession, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

The law of adverse possession tends to be regarded as a quiet backwater. Both judicial opinions and leading treatises treat the legal doctrine as settled. The theory underlying the doctrine, although routinely discussed in the opening weeks of first-year property courses, is only rarely aired in the law reviews any more. Indeed, the most frequently cited articles on adverse possession date from the 1930s and earlier. Perhaps most tellingly, adverse possession seems to have completely escaped the attention of the modem law and economics movement – almost a sure sign of obscurity in today's legal-academic world.

Nevertheless, two recent events …

The Development Of The Law Of Seditious Libel And The Control Of The Press, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a new account of the development of the law of seditious libel from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth. It also outlines a new version of the relationship between the government and the press during that period. The article argues that it was the gradual erosion, during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the legal foundations of the government's policies toward the press that eventually made necessary a new policy based on the law of libel. In the midsixteenth century, the Crown possessed a wide variety of means for dealing with the printed press, …

Can A Tribal Court Be Enjoined From Exercising Jurisdiction Over Nonmembers Of The Tribe?, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Tender Offer Litigation And State Law, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

The recent spate of hostile takeover battles has focused attention and criticism on the federal securities laws. Most claims of defeated offerors and disappointed shareholders have been based on sections 14(e) and 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The United States Supreme Court, however, has limited such federal remedies and suggested that plaintiffs bring state-law actions for interference with a prospective economic advantage. Professor Loewenstein discusses this tort, which has not been used widely in this context, and reviews the tort's traditional elements, its formulation in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and its recent treatment by state courts. …

Torts And Sports: Legal Liability In Professional And Amateur Athletics, Ray Yasser

Ray Yasser

No abstract provided.