Law Commons^™

Law School News: Joyce And Bill Cummings Of Cummings Foundation To Deliver Keynote Address At Rwu Commencement 4-20-2023, Jill Rodrigues

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: National Housing Advocate Named To Lead Rwu's New Real Estate Initiatives 02/08/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Promise And Peril Of Paternalistic Approaches To Flood Risk, Alexander B. Lemann

University of Colorado Law Review

Our country's ever-growing exposure to flood risk has been the target of policy reform for decades. To many experts, it is clear that we must stop subsidizing flood-prone development and begin the process of moving people away from flood-prone areas. And yet, despite the seemingly obvious benefits of abandoning areas that will be permanently underwater in a generation, flood-prone living has been a difficult habit to kick.

Examining the problem against the background of the philosophical literature on paternalism helps show why. Paternalism- government intervention in people's choices for the good of those same people-has long been controversial. The insistence …

Insuring Takings Claims, Christopher Serkin

Christopher Serkin

Local governments typically insure themselves against all kinds of losses, from property damage to legal liability. For small- and medium-sized governments, this usually means purchasing insurance from private insurers or participating in municipal risk pools. Insurance for regulatory takings claims, however, is generally unavailable. This previously unnoticed gap in municipal insurance coverage could lead risk averse local governments to underregulate and underenforce existing regulations where property owners threaten to bring takings claims. This seemingly technical observation turns out to have profound implications for theoretical accounts of the Takings Clause that focus on government regulatory incentives. This Article explores the impact …

Insurance Policies: The Grandparents Of Contractual Black Holes, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Insuring Takings Claims, Christopher Serkin

Northwestern University Law Review

Local governments typically insure themselves against all kinds of losses, from property damage to legal liability. For small- and medium-sized governments, this usually means purchasing insurance from private insurers or participating in municipal risk pools. Insurance for regulatory takings claims, however, is generally unavailable. This previously unnoticed gap in municipal insurance coverage could lead risk averse local governments to underregulate and underenforce existing regulations where property owners threaten to bring takings claims. This seemingly technical observation turns out to have profound implications for theoretical accounts of the Takings Clause that focus on government regulatory incentives. This Article explores the impact …

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foiled By The Banks? How A Lender's Decision May Support Or Undermine A Jurisdiction's Environmental Policies That Promote Green Buildings, Darren A. Prum

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

A United Nations Environmental Programme report addressing climate change states that the built environment in both emerging and developed countries accounts for more than forty percent of global energy usage and at least one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The report further asserts that the built environment offers an unsurpassed opportunity to supply cost effective, lasting, and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In response to this call to action, state and local governments in the U.S. have turned to a variety of policies to ensure that real estate developments within their jurisdictions further green building objectives. However, …

The Perverse Effects Of Subsidized Weather Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

This Article explores the role of insurance as a substitute for direct regulation of risks posed by severe weather. In pricing the risk of human activity along the predicted path of storms, insurance can provide incentives for efficient location decisions as well as for cost-justified mitigation efforts in building construction and infrastructure. Currently, however, much insurance for severe-weather risks is provided and heavily subsidized by the government. This Article demonstrates two primary distortions arising from the government’s dominance in these insurance markets. First, existing government subsidies are allocated differentially across households, resulting in a significant regressive redistribution favoring affluent homeowners …

Revisiting Construction Defects As “Occurrences” Under Cgl Insurance Policies, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Insuring Landslides: America’S Uninsured Natural Catastrophes, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophes In America, Christopher French

Journal Articles

Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and lives were left in ruins in the wake of the storms. Nationwide, only approximately 7% of homeowners have insurance that covers flood losses even though the risk of flooding is only increasing as coastal areas continue to be developed and …

Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophies In America, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Court Of Appeals Of New York, Consumers Union Of United States, Inc. V. New York, Daphne Vlcek

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Resolving The Double Liability Problem: A Critique Of California's Mechanics Lien Statute, Terrence Nguyen

University of Massachusetts Law Review

California’s mechanics lien statute allows a sub-contractor to file a lien on a homeowner’s property when a direct contractor, for whom the sub-contractor worked, has failed to pay the sub-contractor. The statute compels the homeowner to pay the sub-contractor even when the homeowner has paid the direct contractor in full. This Note argues that California’s mechanics lien statute is too broad, because the statute does not provide any exception for a homeowner who has paid the direct contractor in full. Specifically, this Note argues that California’s mechanics lien statute violates public policy, as well as constitutional, and contract principles. This …

Fire Losses And Conflicting Judicial Rulings Over Whether Property Insurers Must Indemnify Insureds And Pay Third-Party Claims - Some Implications For Wildfire Litigation In Texas's Courts, Willy E. Rice

Faculty Articles

Wildfires in Texas have generated two interrelated questions: (1) whether insurers have a duty to indemnify residential and commercial property owners if a wild forest, brush, grass, or prairie fire destroys homeowners' property in Texas, and (2) whether insurers have a duty to pay or settle third-party claims in Texas if a property owner starts a fire on her property, which evolves into a wildfire and destroys a third party's residential or commercial property.

If You Are Unlucky Enough To Be A Judgment Creditor, At Least Do It Judiciously, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article. highlights the importance of a judgment creditor to record a request for notice of default and to execute on insurance funds before they are paid to the judgment debtor.

Get Sick, Get Out: The Medical Causes Of Home Mortgage Foreclosures, Christopher Robertson, Richard Egelhof, Michael Hoke

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there has been national alarm about the rising rate of home foreclosures, which now strike one in every 92 households in America and which contribute to even broader macroeconomic effects. The "standard account" of home foreclosure attributes this spike to loose lending practices, irresponsible borrowers, a flat real estate market, and rising interest rates. Based on our study of homeowners going through foreclosures in four states, we find that the standard account fails to represent the facts and thus makes a poor guide for policy. In contrast, we find that half of all foreclosures have medical causes, …

Improving The Construction And Litigation Resolution Process: The 2005 Amendments To The Washington Condominium Act Are A Win-Win For Homeowners And Developers, Mark F. O'Donnell, David E. Chawes

Seattle University Law Review

On August 1, 2005, significant amendments to the Washington Condominium Act (WCA) became effective. These amendments were intended to substantially reduce water infiltration in multiunit residential buildings and to simplify the condominium construction dispute resolution process. The heart of the amendments is the implementation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, as well as fee-shiftingprovisions which require the non-prevailing party to pay the attorney fees and costs of the prevailing party. A decade of lawsuits brought under the WCA by condominium owners associations against builders and developers, and in turn by builders against subcontractors, alleging defects in the ability of the …

Eminent Domain Economics: Should ‘Just Compensation’ Be Abolished, And Would ‘Takings Insurance’ Work Instead?, Steve Calandrillo

Articles

In a defeat for staunch property rights advocates, the Supreme Court ruled this spring that a prohibition on land development in the Tahoe basin did not amount to a de facto taking of land such that the constitutional mandate of just compensation was triggered. The Tahoe decision highlights the struggle in eminent domain jurisprudence over the proper treatment of so-called regulatory takings. It has long been taken for granted that when the government exercises its power of eminent domain to take private property in the name of the public good, it must reimburse displaced landowners. While compensation for physical takings …

Reason And Pollution: Construing The "Absolute" Pollution Exclusion In Context And In Light Of Its Purpose And Party Expectations, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Responding to the flurry of environmental coverage litigation over the application of the “sudden and accidental” pollution exclusion, the insurance industry during the mid-1980s largely adopted new standard pollution exclusion language for commercial general liability (CGL) policies. Since the mid-1980s, the standard form CGL has included the so-called absolute pollution exclusion, which provides that the insurance does not apply to bodily injury or property damage “arising out of the actual, alleged or threatened discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release, or escape of pollutants.” A “pollutant” is defined as “any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, …

Adminsitrative Law - Eligibility Under The Uniform Relocation Act: Federal Mortage Insurance And The Determination Of Displaced Person, Catherine Kalita Mclamb

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insurance - Recovery - Rights Of Mortgagee Under Mortgagor's Insurance, Robert B. Fiske, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant issued a policy of fire insurance on an automobile plaintiff had purchased with money borrowed from one Hansen, to whom a note and a chattel mortgage were given as security for the debt. A week after the policy was issued naming plaintiff as the insured, defendant executed an amendment to the policy in the form of an endorsement reading, "Less if any ... shall be paid to the insured and Charles H. Hansen as their interests may appear." The policy provided that it should not apply while the car was subject to any mortgage or other encumbrance not specifically …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Cases

Automobiles--Family Purpose Doctrine--Automobile Owned by other than Head of Family

Contracts--Effect of Illegality--Recover Where No Moral Turpitude involved and Purpose of Statute Not Violated

Corporations--Liability of Officer to Creditors for Excessive Salary--Burden of Proof on Defendant to Show Reasonableness

Criminal Law--Proximate Cause--Responsibility for Death Due to Acts of Persons Opposing a Felony

Criminal Law--Violation of the Mann Act--Actual Transportation Entirely within a Single State

Evidence--Confidential Communications between Spouses--Admissibility of Testimony as to Conduct of Party Spouse

Insurance--Commercial--Radius Endorsement in Automobile Insurance--Effect of Breach after Return to Designated Area

Personal Property--Finding Lost Goods--Chambermaid's Right to Goods Found by Her …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONFLICT OF LAWS--DOMICIL FOR PURPOSES OF INCOME TAXATION--ABSENCE OF FIXED INTENT TO REMAIN IN RESIDENCE OR TO RETURN TO DOMICIL OF ORIGIN

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--INTERSTATE COMMERCE--VALIDITY OF STATE TAX UPON GROSS RECEIPTS OF SEGMENT OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--PEACEFUL PICKETING--POWER OF STATE COURT TO ENJOIN

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--POWER OF COURT TO PUNISH FOR DIRECT CONTEMPT--OPPORTUNITY TO OBTAIN COUNSEL

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EVIDENCE--ADMISSIBILITY OF SCIENTIFIC TESTS--HARGER DRUNKOMETER TEST TO DETERMINE INTOXICATION

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FEDERAL JURISDICTION--REQUIREMENT THAT FEDERAL QUESTION APPEAR ON FACE OF COMPLAINT--APPLICATION TO DECLARATORY JUDGMENT ACTION

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INCOME TAXES--DEDUCTION OF BUSINESS EXPENSES--DEDUCTIBILITY OF PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION OF PRICE REGULATIONS

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INSURANCE--"COMPREHENSIVE" COVERAGE …

A Symposium On Estate Planning: Foreword, Mayo Adams Shattuck

Vanderbilt Law Review

The power and increasing value of conferences and symposia of the sort which the Vanderbilt Law Review has arranged is that a team of first class men are gathered together to give testimony and useful advice upon the various independent factors which must be taken into account in solution of this fascinating problem. When a group of distinguished scholars and practitioners like those participating in this symposium are willing to make thoughtful contributions to this sort-of round table, without hope of compensation except for the satisfaction that comes from the provision of sound ideas and the education that stems from …

Some Aspects Of Estate Planning In Tennessee, Alec B. Stevenson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Not many years ago a large New York bank circulated privately booklet with the provocative title "The Passing of the Simple Will." The choice of the title and the text itself underlined the complexities which surround the owner of property and his advisers when they jointly attempt to plan the disposition of a modern estate for modem needs. The now almost legendary owner of Blackacre could, indeed, write a simple will, quite effective and satisfactory as a plan for the disposition 'and use of the family property. One need scarcely recite the changes which have taken place in more recent …

An Introduction To The Law Of Community Property, Allen C. Steere

Indiana Law Journal

Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of The Indiana State Bar Association at Evansville, Indiana, September 5, 1947.