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Full-Text Articles in Law
Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz
Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Common law courts have a long tradition of borrowing legislative and regulatory standards to define standards of care under the tort system. Treating such standards as setting minimum levels of care and safety under tort law, the courts uniformly have ruled that violations of standards constitute negligence per se, while compliance is merely evidence of negligence. Although critics of the tort system have urged legislatures and courts to adopt rules giving greater weight to regulatory compliance in products liability cases, the drafters of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability have declined to do so. They have adopted instead an …
Damages-Compensation For Curtailment Of Life Expectancy As A Separate Element Of Damages-Downie V. United States Lines Co., Michigan Law Review
Damages-Compensation For Curtailment Of Life Expectancy As A Separate Element Of Damages-Downie V. United States Lines Co., Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
While plaintiff was aboard ship as an employee of the defendant, he suffered a heart attack which was aggravated by the negligence of one of defendant's employees. In suing under the Jones Act for damages caused by this aggravation of his condition, plaintiff sought recovery for the eight year curtailment of his life expectancy as a separate and distinct item of damages, independent of the economic loss sustained as a result of such curtailment. The jury made a general award of $86,900 of which $25,000 was a special award for the curtailment of plaintiff's life. On defendant's motion, the trial …
Workmen's Compensation - Federal Employers' Liability Act - Basis Of Liability Not Common Law Negligence, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed.
Workmen's Compensation - Federal Employers' Liability Act - Basis Of Liability Not Common Law Negligence, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Petitioner, a laborer in a railroad section gang, was assigned to burn weeds near a railroad track. He was injured when he fell into a culvert as he was trying to escape from smoke and flames which had been fanned by a passing train. A jury in the Circuit Court of St. Louis awarded damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed upon the ground that the evidence was not sufficient to support a finding of the railroad's liability, and the case should not have been allowed to go to a jury. On certiorari …
Civil Procedure-Parties-Real Party In Interest When Insurer Has Equitable Interest In Claim, Warren K, Urbom S.Ed.
Civil Procedure-Parties-Real Party In Interest When Insurer Has Equitable Interest In Claim, Warren K, Urbom S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sued for damages to his fruit and grocery market which were allegedly caused by the negligence of defendant. Interrogatories were submitted by defendant designed to determine whether or not plaintiff had been paid the full amount of his loss by an insurance company and had assigned his claim to that company. The trial court sustained a motion to strike the interrogatories. On appeal, held, reversed, two judges dissenting. Although a tortfeasor cannot defeat an action by the insured by showing full subrogation of the insurer, he can plead an assignment of the insured's claim to show that the …
Federal Procedure--Third-Party Practice--Contbibution Among Joint Or Concurrent Tort-Feasors, Paul M.D. Harrison
Federal Procedure--Third-Party Practice--Contbibution Among Joint Or Concurrent Tort-Feasors, Paul M.D. Harrison
Michigan Law Review
A sued B for injuries arising out of a collision between B's taxicab and an automobile driven by C, in which A was riding as a guest passenger. B filed a third-party complaint against C, who denied B's allegation of negligence and counterclaimed against B for personal injuries. A did not amend his complaint to assert a claim against C. The jury found that A's injury was caused by the concurrent negligence of B and C. Judgment for $11,500 was given to A against B, and B was awarded a judgment against …
Bankruptcy -Trustee's Liability - Effect Of Requirement Of Deposit In Designated Depositary On Trustee's Common Law Duty Of Due Care, Russel T. Walker
Bankruptcy -Trustee's Liability - Effect Of Requirement Of Deposit In Designated Depositary On Trustee's Common Law Duty Of Due Care, Russel T. Walker
Michigan Law Review
In a suit to charge a trustee in bankruptcy for the loss of funds of the bankrupt estate caused by insolvency of the depositary bank, the trustee contended that as he had fulfilled the requirement of section 61 of the Bankruptcy Act by depositing the funds of the estate in a "designated depositary," he could not be charged with liability for any loss occurring thereafter; he argued that section 61 repealed, by implication, the trustee's common-law duty of due care in the handling of estate funds after they were deposited in a "designated depositary." Held, the fact that the …
Foreign Enforcement Of Actions For Wrongful Death, William H. Rose
Foreign Enforcement Of Actions For Wrongful Death, William H. Rose
Michigan Law Review
Actions for wrongful death have a long history in the common law. Homicide was once a private matter giving rise to the blood feud and later to the wergild, whereby a money substitute replaced private warfare. With the development of criminal law the crown took jurisdiction over all killings. At a time when all felonies carried with them the death penalty, forfeiture of chattels and escheat of lands, the right to sue for wrongful death was scarcely of practical importance. This was especially so since felony included negligent killing, and even an accidental killing required the king's pardon if …
Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review
Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Assignments- Assignment of an Expectancy - Joseph and James were two of six children. A contract witnessed "that Joseph Snyder has sold to James Snyder one undivided sixth of the real estate owned by the mother, Susan Snyder; to secure said interest to James after her death, the mother unites in the conveyance of said interest The said Joseph warrants and defends the interest from all claims." The contract was signed by Joseph and by the mother. Held, Joseph had no estate which he could convey, and the contract, though made with the consent of the mother, was unenforceable either …
The Law Of Reason, Fredrick Sir Pollock
The Law Of Reason, Fredrick Sir Pollock
Michigan Law Review
If there is one virtue that our books of authority claim for the Common Law more positively than another, it is that of being reasonable. The law is even said to be the perfection of reason. Not that the meaning of that saying is exhausted by the construction which a layman would naturally put upon it. For, as Coke had to tell King James I., much to his displeasure, there is an artificial reason of the law. Certainty is among the first objects of systematic justice. General principles being once fixed, the only way to attain certainty is to work …