Law Commons^™

Choice Of Law And The Preponderantly Multistate Rule: The Example Of Successor Corporation Products Liability, Diana Sclar

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Most state rules of substantive law, whether legislative or judicial, ordinarily adjust rights and obligations among local parties with respect to local events. Conventional choice of law methodologies for adjudicating disputes with multistate connections all start from an explicit or implicit assumption of a choice between such locally oriented substantive rules. This article reveals, for the first time, that some state rules of substantive law ordinarily adjust rights and obligations with respect to parties and events connected to more than one state and only occasionally apply to wholly local matters. For these rules I use the term “nominally domestic rules …

The Opioid Litigation: The Fda Is Mia, Catherine M. Sharkey

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

It is readily agreed that federal preemption of state tort law alters the balance between federal and state power. Federal preemption is a high-profile defense in almost all modern products liability cases. It is thus surprising to see how little attention has been given to federal preemption by courts and commentators in the opioid litigation. Opioid litigation provides a lens through which I explore the role of state and federal courts and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in striking the right balance of power. My purpose here is not to resolve the divide among the few courts that have …

Steering (Or Not) Through The Social And Legal Implications Of Autonomous Vehicles, Melissa L. Griffin

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Products Liability Crisis: Modest Proposals For Legislative Reform, William P. Bivins Jr.

Akron Law Review

This article will attempt to identify some of the sources of the problems which are adversely affecting the system of products liability litigation and will offer proposals for reform within the framework of the law of products liability.

The Unintended Consequence Of Tort Reform In Michigan: An Argument For Reinstating Retailer Product Liability, Ashley L. Thompson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Tort reform became an important issue during the 1994 Congressional Campaign as part of the Republican Party's "Contract with America. "Since then, many federal and state laws have attempted to reduce both liability and recovery in tort actions. In 1996, Michigan passed the Tort Reform Act, encompassing many drastic changes to state tort law. One provision of the Act, § 294 7, scaled back liability against non-manufacturing retailers in product liability actions. The Michigan Supreme Court interpreted the exceptions of the law narrowly and the prohibition broadly, essentially barring recovery from retailers. Since 1996, this provision has prevented victims injured …

Arriving At Reasonable Alternative Design: The Reporters' Travelogue, James A. Henderson Jr., Aaron D. Twerski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Substantial commentary and controversy have been generated by the requirement in the new Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability that plaintiffs in most (but not all) cases involving claims of defective product design show that a reasonable alternative design was available and that failure to adopt the alternative rendered the defendant's design not reasonably safe. Henderson and Twerski explain the origins of that requirement in American products liability case law and show that it is not only the majority position but also comports with widely shared views regarding the proper objectives of our liability system. Although consumer expectations cannot serve …

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 …

Mass Tort Litigation: Congress's Silent, But Deadly, Reform Effort, Mary J. Davis

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article explores the ways in which The Common Sense Product Liability and Legal

Reform Act (“Act”) treats mass tort litigation issues. The Act does so both directly and indirectly. The direct methods of reform are mostly industry-specific and, thus, almost inconsequential in contrast to the indirect treatment. The indirect, almost clandestine, methods of reform are the most insidious and provide the most cause for concern as Congress once again attempts to "reform" products liability by reintroducing the Act in 1997. Given the President's early indication that a reform measure could meet with his approval, but that this one in …

The Preemption Pentad: Federal Preemption Of Products Liability Claims After Medtronic [V. Lohr], Robert B. Leflar, Robert S. Adler

Robert B Leflar

Taking the language of the federal consumer protection statutes out of historical context and inattentive to those laws' original purposes, judges dissatisfied with the expansion of state products liability law have in recent years read preemption provisions of these federal statutes to bar a wide range of claims that would otherwise be viable under state law. In Medtronic v. Lohr, the Supreme Court (per Justice Stevens) severely constrained the scope of the federal preemption defense in the context of the federal medical device law. But the implications of the Medtronic decision for cases involving products in other regulatory categories remain …

Osha Evidence In Federal Court Products Liability Actions: Too Prejudicial To Be Admissible To Prove A Machine's Safety Or Defect, Or Simply Additional Evidence For The Fact Finder?, Michael Siris

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Warranty Of Quality In Sale Of Goods Under The Perspective Of The American And French Law, Renaud Baguenault De Puchesse

LLM Theses and Essays

While the United States’ common law system is characterized by diversity due to each state having its own set of rules, in certain areas there are nationwide legislative attempts of unification and standardization. One such attempt is the adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code which governs the sale of goods law in the United States. The French civil law system generally differs greatly from the American system in that it is primarily based upon statutes and codes. However, the American Uniform Commercial Code and the French Civil Code provide tangible, comparable bases to assess similarities and differences between American and …

Privity Revisited: Tort Recovery By A Commercial Buyer For A Defective Product's Self-Inflicted Damage, Mark A. Kaprelian

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that if a seller and a commercial buyer are in privity, damage to a product resulting from its own defect should not be recoverable by a commercial buyer in a tort action. Part I shows how the conflict arises and examines the judicial boundaries that are normally drawn between tort and warranty liability. Part II contrasts the rationales for the warranty and tort remedies, with particular emphasis on the Uniform Commercial Code and Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Part III argues that if a seller and a commercial buyer are in privity and …

A Moderate And Restrained Federal Product Liability Bill: Targeting The Crisis Areas For Resolution, Aaron D. Twerski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this article I have tried to offer a rational, feasible, and politically acceptable solution to the present product liability crisis. To do this, I have first set out the problem. I explain in Part I how courts have created the crisis by formulating incomprehensible legal standards. In Part II, I examine the difficulties with assessing punitive damages against a defendant. In Part III, I discuss the conflict between the torts and workers' compensation systems. In Part IV, I reflect on the need to protect wholesalers and retailers from needless litigation. Part V suggests that a federal study on the …

Action Accrual Date For Written Warranties To Repair: Date Of Delivery Or Date Of Failure To Repair?, Carey A. Dewitt

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that the statute of limitations for an action for breach of a repair warranty should begin to run not when the goods are delivered (on-delivery rule), but when the manufacturer has failed to repair the goods (failure-to-repair rule). Part I considers the current division of authority relating to the action accrual date (the date at which the limitations period begins) for repair warranties. It analyzes the issue of whether the repair warranty is a species of future performance warranty under section 2-725(2) and examines non-Code law on repair promises. Part II discusses the advantages and disadvantages of …

Staff Report Of The Joint Committee On Tort Liability To The Governor And Legislature, Joint Committee On Tort Liability

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

Transcript Of Hearing On Products Liability, Joint Committee On Tort Liability

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.