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Full-Text Articles in Law
Customer Domination At Work: A New Paradigm For The Sexual Harassment Of Employees By Customers, Einat Albin
Customer Domination At Work: A New Paradigm For The Sexual Harassment Of Employees By Customers, Einat Albin
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This Article introduces a novel legal paradigm—customer domination at work—to address the sexual harassment of employees by customers. This new approach challenges the prevailing paradigm, which focuses on the employer-employee binary relationship. I show how, under current Title VII law, the prevailing paradigm leads to a weaker form of employer liability than other instances where employers are liable for the sexual harassment of their employees. The protection for workers is also limited. The same is true of two other legal regimes discussed in the Article: Germany and Britain. More importantly, I argue that the prevailing paradigm precludes a true understanding …
Formalism And Employer Liability Under Title Vii, Samuel R. Bagenstos
Formalism And Employer Liability Under Title Vii, Samuel R. Bagenstos
Articles
Most lawyers, law professors, and judges are familiar with two standard critiques of formalism in legal reasoning. One is the unacknowledged-policymaking critique. This critique argues that formalist reasoning purports to be above judicial policymaking but instead simply hides the policy decisions offstage. The other is the false-determinacy critique. This critique observes that formalist reasoning purports to reduce decision costs in the run of cases by sorting cases into defined categories, but argues that instead of going away the difficult questions of application migrate to the choice of the category in which to place a particular case.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission And Structural Reform Of The American Workplace, Margo Schlanger, Pauline T. Kim
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission And Structural Reform Of The American Workplace, Margo Schlanger, Pauline T. Kim
Articles
In one of its most-watched recent cases, the United States Supreme Court struck down a class action alleging that Wal-Mart stores discriminated against female employees in pay and promotion decisions. The plaintiffs alleged that Wal-Mart’s corporate culture and highly discretionary decision-making practices led to sex discrimination on a company-wide basis, and they sought injunctive relief as well as backpay for individual employees. Reversing the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court held in Wal-Mart v. Dukes that the proposed class failed to meet the requirements for class action certification under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of …
Limiting The Affirmative Defense In The Digital Workplace , Daniel B. Garrie
Limiting The Affirmative Defense In The Digital Workplace , Daniel B. Garrie
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
From 2009 to 2011, there were more than 30,000 sexual harassment claims filed in the United States. The ubiquitous availability of digital technology devices has facilitated many instances of sexual harassment. Such sexual harassment occurs through unprovoked and offensive e-mails, messages posted on electronic bulletin boards, and other means available on the Internet. To date, courts remain silent on this issue. Should this type of sexual harassment be treated differently from physical sexual harassment? The surprising answer is yes. This Article suggests a new judicial framework for addressing sexual harassment perpetrated through digital communications. This framework accounts for the real-world …
Prosecuting Worker Endangerment: The Need For Stronger Criminal Penalties For Violations Of The Occupational Safety And Health Act, David M. Uhlmann
Prosecuting Worker Endangerment: The Need For Stronger Criminal Penalties For Violations Of The Occupational Safety And Health Act, David M. Uhlmann
Articles
A recent spate of construction deaths in New York City, similar incidents in Las Vegas, and scores of fatalities in recent years at mines and industrial facilities across the country have highlighted the need for greater commitment to worker safety in the United States and stronger penalties for violators of the worker safety laws. Approximately 6,000 workers are killed on the job each year1—and thousands more suffer grievous injuries—yet penalties for worker safety violations remain appallingly small, and criminal prosecutions are almost non-existent. In recent years, most of the criminal prosecutions for worker safety violations have been brought by the …
Litigator's Thumbnail Guide To The Warn Act, David A. Santacroce
Litigator's Thumbnail Guide To The Warn Act, David A. Santacroce
Articles
When large companies choose to lay off workers or close down plants without prior notice, they can be subject to extensive liability under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), including 60 days backpay to all affected workers, daily fines to local government, and attorney fees generated during the suit. In the following article, the author presents the bare bones basics of WARN in order for employees and their advocates to understand how and when WARN applies.
After Ellerth: The Tangible Employment Action In Sexual Harassment Analysis, Susan Grover
After Ellerth: The Tangible Employment Action In Sexual Harassment Analysis, Susan Grover
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Article, Professor Grover argues that courts too readily allow employers to avoid vicarious liability for supervisors' unlawful sexual harassment of subordinates. The Article explores the breadth of the affirmative defense first introduced in the Supreme Court's 1998 cases of Faragher v. Boca Raton and Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth. That defense clears an employer of liability for a supervisor's unlawful sexual harassment if (a) the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the …
The Customer Is Always Right… Not! Employer Liability For Third Party Sexual Harassment, Lea B. Vaughn
The Customer Is Always Right… Not! Employer Liability For Third Party Sexual Harassment, Lea B. Vaughn
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This article will ask a series of questions. What is third party sexual harassment? Under what conditions does it occur? Does it differ in any significant respects from traditional notions of sexual harassment? Should those differences, if any, make a difference in the way that the legal system addresses third party harassment? And indeed, should the problem be addressed solely through the legal system? What might an employer do to alleviate sexual harassment of this type?
"Supervisor" Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment Claims, Liability Insurance, And The Trend Towards Negligence, Amanda D. Smith
"Supervisor" Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment Claims, Liability Insurance, And The Trend Towards Negligence, Amanda D. Smith
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A lack of settled standards for determining liability in supervisor hostile environment sexual harassment lawsuits combined with similar uncertainty in the context of employer liability insurance coverage has resulted in increased litigation in this area. This Note argues that the current predominant standard in the employer liability context, which is based on negligence principle should be rejected in favor of an apparent authority standard, which more appropriately strikes a balance between encouraging employers to identify harassing behaviors and exonerating them from liability when they do so and take appropriate remedial action. It further argues that in order to develop effective …
Hostile Environent Sexual Harassment Claims And The Unwelcome Influence Of Rape Law, Janine Benedet
Hostile Environent Sexual Harassment Claims And The Unwelcome Influence Of Rape Law, Janine Benedet
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This article considers the unwelcomeness requirement of the plaintiff’s prima facie case. In particular, it examines the discussion of unwelcomeness found in the decision of the Supreme Court in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, and the content given to this element by the subsequent decisions of lower courts. Such an inquiry reveals several parallels between the approach of courts to sexual harassment claims and their traditional treatment of the criminal offense of rape. The same biases and erroneous assumptions that have hampered an effective response to the physical violation of women have permeated the application of the purported remedy …
The Liability Of Third Parties Under Title Vii, Andrew O. Schiff
The Liability Of Third Parties Under Title Vii, Andrew O. Schiff
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note considers the extent to which Title VII covers discrimination by third parties other than employment agencies and labor organizations. Part I analyzes the rationale for covering third parties, discussing Title VIl's language and the policies that Congress intended it to serve. Part II proposes a framework for analyzing the liability of third parties. Part III applies this framework to three instances where courts have disagreed about the liability of a particular third party: insurance companies' administration of employee benefits, state licensing agencies' licensing of individuals for various occupations, and hospitals' granting of staff privileges to doctors.
Contribution Between Parties To A Discriminatory Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review
Contribution Between Parties To A Discriminatory Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines rules of title VII back pay liability and apportionment. Part I argues that all signatories to a discriminatory collective bargaining agreement should be jointly and severally liable to injured persons for back pay. Although a union or employer may object to joint and several liability if its opponent in collective bargaining proposed and bargained for the discriminatory term, the purposes of title VII require that the parties become jointly and severally liable upon signing the agreement. Since joint and several liability fully serves the compensatory purpose of the statute, Part II of the Note looks to deterrence …
Tort Liability Of Labor Unions For Picket Line Assaults, David R. Case
Tort Liability Of Labor Unions For Picket Line Assaults, David R. Case
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article will discuss whether tort actions against unions for picket line assaults are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, and if not preempted, what forums are available to hear such actions. This article will also examine the theories that have been used to hold unions liable for the assaults committed by their picketers. Included in this discussion will be an analysis of the policy considerations offered in support of the various theories of liability.
Workmen's Compensation--Encouraging Employment Of The Handicapped In Michigan: A Proposal For Revision Of The Michigan Second Injury Fund, Michigan Law Review
Workmen's Compensation--Encouraging Employment Of The Handicapped In Michigan: A Proposal For Revision Of The Michigan Second Injury Fund, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Employment of the handicapped is clearly a proper concern of the state. Unemployed, such a person is a burden on his family and on the state; welfare and relief payments to such a person needlessly increase costs to both the state and local governments supporting such programs. Employed, the handicapped person is a self-supporting, stable member of the community; he becomes a taxpayer rather than a tax consumer. There are also important moral and social considerations which may be simply summarized stating that no person who is able to work should be needlessly denied employment. In short, any continued waste …
Collective Bargaining And The Antitrust Laws, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Collective Bargaining And The Antitrust Laws, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Other Publications
A central aim of the antitrust laws is the promotion of competition. A central aim of collective bargaining is the elimination of competition-according to classical trade union theory, the elimination of wage competition among all employees doing the same job in the same industry. Given these disparate aims, the antitrust laws and collective bargaining will almost inevitably tend to clash. To harmonize them, the type of competition which the law is intended to foster must be carefully distinguished from the type of competition which union-employer bargaining can properly displace. The Supreme Court's last major effort to draw the demarcation line …
Advocating The Rights Of The Injured, Benjamin Marcus
Advocating The Rights Of The Injured, Benjamin Marcus
Michigan Law Review
When workmen's compensation was first introduced a half century ago, it was felt necessary to cushion the shock in a number of ways. One of these was the idea of a bargain, an exchange, in which the worker, to obtain the new remedy based on liability without fault, gave up his existing remedy, the right to a tort action against his employer for a negligent injury. It is time that the terms of that bargain be re-examined.
Agency - Liability Of Principal For Termination Of Agents Employment, William G. Mateer S.Ed.
Agency - Liability Of Principal For Termination Of Agents Employment, William G. Mateer S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
In the summer of 1949, appellant entered into an oral contract for an indefinite time with the appellee whereby the former was granted an exclusive wholesale distributorship of appellee's farm and garden equipment. A four-year period followed in which appellant increased the number of dealers in appellee's product from four or five in 1949 to over one hundred in 1953. In the latter part of 1952 appellant contemplated an enlargement of its facilities which would require it to enter upon a fifteen-year lease. Since the lessor desired some assurances as to the duration of appellant's franchise, appellant wrote to appellee …
Administrative Officers' Tort Liability, Kenneth Culp Davis
Administrative Officers' Tort Liability, Kenneth Culp Davis
Michigan Law Review
Case law on tort liability of public officers and employees is much more interesting than one might expect on the basis of abstract contemplation. The traditional common-law notion that an employee should, as against the employer, bear the ultimate responsibility for his negligence has been exposed as seriously unrealistic in a holding by a unanimous Supreme Court; the decision concerning the government employee is potentially applicable to corporate employees. The many holdings that officers are not liable for deliberate and malicious torts are based on the intriguing view that justice cannot be done when malice is proved, without opening the …
Scope Of The Business: The Borrowed Servant Problem, Talbot Smith
Scope Of The Business: The Borrowed Servant Problem, Talbot Smith
Michigan Law Review
If your client wants to erect an office building he may be advised of the cost within narrow limits. The necessary expenditure will be X dollars plus Y lives or limbs. If his talents take the turn of bridge construction similar computations may be made. To carry forward to completion either of these projects he must use materials of various kinds, and he must use men. The expenditure of the human, animate, material is as inevitable as the expenditure of the inanimate. With increased care and skill the curve of expenditure of the human material will approach the asymptote of …
The Uncompensated Industrial Injury, Stanley Law Sabel
The Uncompensated Industrial Injury, Stanley Law Sabel
Michigan Law Review
Workmen's compensation laws as means by which industry shares part of the burden of the human toll incident to the cost of production are reaching the maturity of their development. The adoption of such laws has been wide; all but two states in the union now have some provision by which employees engaged in most lines of work are compensated without regard to fault for injuries caused by their work.
Constitutional Law-Police Power -Validity Of Compulsory Unemployment Insurance Act
Constitutional Law-Police Power -Validity Of Compulsory Unemployment Insurance Act
Michigan Law Review
Complainants asked for a declaratory judgment that the New York Unemployment Insurance Act is unconstitutional. They contended that the law, providing for the payment of limited unemployment benefits out of a fund raised by a uniform payroll tax imposed on all employers, takes property without due process of law. Held, that the law is valid, violating neither the state nor the Federal Constitution. W. H. H. Chamberlain, Inc. v. Andrews, 271 N. Y. 1, 2 N. E. (2d) 22 (1936).
Authority Of Allen V. Flood, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Authority Of Allen V. Flood, Horace Lafayette Wilgus
Articles
In the case of Allen v. Flood, one of the Lords asked this interesting question, "If the cook says to her master, 'Discharge the butler or I leave you,' and the master discharges the butler, does the butler have an action against the cook?" This, Lord Shand said, was the simplest form in which the very question in Allen v. Flood could be raised.4 And, like the original question, it puzzled the judges and Lords very much to answer.
Lake Superior Mining Co. V. Catharine Erickson, Thomas M. Cooley
Lake Superior Mining Co. V. Catharine Erickson, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
"Where a mining company let a contract for taking out a certain quantity of ore, but employed persons of supposed skill to watch for dangers from loosened rocks, and in other ways retained a control over the mode of mining, and a servant of the contractors was killed by the falling of a rock, the danger from which ought to have been detected and guarded against: Held, that the mining company was responsible."
The Cases In Which The Master Is Liable For Injuries To Servants In His Employ, Thomas M. Cooley
The Cases In Which The Master Is Liable For Injuries To Servants In His Employ, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The frequency with which questions arise, and become the subject of legal controversy, concerning the liability of an employer to persons receiving injuries in his service, must be the excuse for the present paper. The legal questions have recently received the attention of many able jurists, and several of the difficulties which surrounded the general subject but a few years ago may now be considered permanently removed. The purpose here will be, to present the general rules which have been laid down by the authorities, with some of the reasons on which they are based.