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Full-Text Articles in Law
Proximate Cause In Constitutional Torts: Holding Interrogators Liable For Fifth Amendment Violations At Trial, Joel Flaxman
Proximate Cause In Constitutional Torts: Holding Interrogators Liable For Fifth Amendment Violations At Trial, Joel Flaxman
Michigan Law Review
This Note argues for the approach taken by the Sixth Circuit in McKinley: a proper understanding of the Fifth Amendment requires holding that an officer who coerces a confession that is used at trial to convict a defendant in violation of the right against self-incrimination should face liability for the harm of conviction and imprisonment. Part I examines how the Supreme Court and the circuits have applied the concept of common law proximate causation to constitutional torts and argues that lower courts are wrong to blindly adopt common law rules without reference to the constitutional rights at stake. It …
Concurrent Causation In Insurance Contracts, William Conant Brewer Jr.
Concurrent Causation In Insurance Contracts, William Conant Brewer Jr.
Michigan Law Review
A great deal of work and thought has been devoted to concurrent causation problems in the field of torts. Less attention has been paid to the insurance cases, and no serious effort has been made to formulate the separate rules applicable to them. It is the thesis of this article that concurrent causation problems which arise under an insurance contract must be handled somewhat differently from those which arise in connection with tort litigation, and that the tendency to borrow rules of law from the larger tort field and apply them to the smaller volume of insurance cases can only …
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Liability Of Tavern-Keeper To Third Person Injured By One To Whom Tavern-Keeper Had Made And Unlawful Sale Of Liquor, Alan C. Miller
Michigan Law Review
In a jurisdiction having a statute prohibiting sales of liquor to minors and persons actually or apparently intoxicated, defendants, four tavern-keepers, served alcoholic beverages to an eighteen-year-old minor. Fifteen or twenty minutes after leaving the last of the taverns, the intoxicated minor negligently drove a motor vehicle and collided with plaintiff's car, killing plaintiff's husband. Plaintiff brought this action as representative of her husband's estate and as owner of the damaged car. Her complaint charged not only that defendants unlawfully and negligently sold and served alcoholic beverages to a minor under circumstances constituting notice that he was a minor, but …
Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding
Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, suffering from bursitis in the right shoulder, received X-ray treatments from defendant physicians. Subsequent thereto, plaintiff's shoulder began to itch, scab, and blister for several years, a condition diagnosed as chronic radiodermatitis caused by the X-ray therapy. Approximately two years after the treatments, plaintiff was examined by a dermatologist who advised her to have her shoulder checked every six months because the area might become cancerous. Plaintiff then developed a severe "cancerphobia," an apprehension that she would ultimately develop cancer from the radiation burn. Plaintiff brought a malpractice suit against defendant physicians, seeking recovery for the physical injury and …
Negligence - Duty Of Care - Effect Of Time Lapse On Manufacturer's Duty, John Paul Williams
Negligence - Duty Of Care - Effect Of Time Lapse On Manufacturer's Duty, John Paul Williams
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff suffered injuries when the fly wheel on a truck he was driving gave way, causing the truck to crash. He brought an action in damages against defendant, manufacturer of the truck, alleging defective design and manufacture of the fly wheel. The truck had been safely used for at least five years prior to the accident and had been driven 200,000 to 400,000 miles during that period. On defendant's motion for directed verdict, held, granted. There is no evidence whatever that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care. Also, use of the truck for five years results in a …
Negligence - Res Ipsa Loquitur - Application To Multiple Defendants In The Alternative, Edward H. Hoenicke
Negligence - Res Ipsa Loquitur - Application To Multiple Defendants In The Alternative, Edward H. Hoenicke
Michigan Law Review
Appellant, a minor, was injured by the explosion of an "aerial bomb" which he found on a county fair ground. Two of the defendants admitted having brought aerial bombs to the fair but each entered evidence which if believed would show that he had not left the article which injured the appellant. These two defendants were completely independent of each other and it was admitted that both could not be responsible for the injury to the child. The lower court instructed the jury that if they could not determine which of the two defendants was actionably negligent, they were compelled …
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Liability Of Saloon Keeper For Liquor Sale Against Wife's Notice, Stephen C. Bransdorfer
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Liability Of Saloon Keeper For Liquor Sale Against Wife's Notice, Stephen C. Bransdorfer
Michigan Law Review
A wrongful death action was brought by the widow and children of a deceased patron of defendant's saloon, the patron having been fatally injured in a fall while engaged in fisticuffs after consuming liquor sold by defendant. Plaintiffs alleged that defendant knew that deceased became belligerent when intoxicated and that sales were made despite widow's prior request that liquor not be furnished to deceased husband in sufficient quantity to cause intoxication. The trial court sustained a demurrer without leave to amend and gave judgment for defendant. On appeal, held, reversed; the trial court abused its discretion. Cole v. Rush …
Negligence - Causation - Liability Under Statute For Injury Resulting From Fire Started By Railroad Locomotive, Howard. N. Thiele, Jr. S.Ed.
Negligence - Causation - Liability Under Statute For Injury Resulting From Fire Started By Railroad Locomotive, Howard. N. Thiele, Jr. S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Sparks from defendant's train started a fire on defendant's right of way which spread toward plaintiff's farm. Plaintiff, in an attempt to contain the fire, plowed a fire guard along the edge of his property. While driving his tractor to a safe place after completing the last furrow, he ran over a root or limb which flew up and struck him in the eye, causing blindness. In the trial court plaintiff recovered from the railroad under an Oklahoma statute which specified that "Any railroad company operating any line in this state shall be liable for all damages sustained by fire …
Palsgraf Revisited, William L. Prosser
Palsgraf Revisited, William L. Prosser
Michigan Law Review
Perhaps the most celebrated of all tort cases is Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Company. Certainly it is one of the most controversial. Thirteen judges in all passed upon the case, and seven of them were for the plaintiff, at least in the sense that they considered that the issue was one to be left to the jury. Four of the remaining six, sitting on the Court of Appeals of New York, had the :final word, and they set aside the verdict, dismissed the complaint, and ordered judgment for the defendant. The Advisers of the Restatement of Torts debated …
Negligence-Foreseeability As A Limitation On Liability, Frank Bowen Jr.
Negligence-Foreseeability As A Limitation On Liability, Frank Bowen Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff's truck broke down on the road. Another truck driver, attempting to pass plaintiff's truck, became mired beside it, and the two trucks blocked the road. While plaintiff lay under his truck attempting repairs, a bulldozer operated by the defendant approached the two trucks from the rear." The driver of the second truck signaled the defendant to push his, the mired truck, but the defendant, mistaking the signal, pushed plaintiff's truck, causing it to run over plaintiff's legs. The defendant had not seen the plaintiff beneath the truck. The issue of defendant's negligence was submitted to the jury, and verdict …
Landlord And Tenant-Liability Of Landlord To Persons On The Premises-The "Concealed Defects" Exception, Robert S. Griggs
Landlord And Tenant-Liability Of Landlord To Persons On The Premises-The "Concealed Defects" Exception, Robert S. Griggs
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sought to recover for injuries suffered in consequence of the defective condition of a stairway in the manufacturing plant leased by her employer from defendant. The stairway was in the sole control of the tenant at the time of the injury; the lease stipulated that no warranty was made as to the condition of the premises; and the sole obligation to repair was borne by the tenant. Liability was claimed, however, upon the contention that the stairway had been in dangerous condition at the time of the letting. It was apparently little used, and plaintiff had used it only …
Insurance - Exclusionary Clauses - Death Due To Violation Of The Law By The Insured, Robert A. Solomon
Insurance - Exclusionary Clauses - Death Due To Violation Of The Law By The Insured, Robert A. Solomon
Michigan Law Review
When a person carrying a life or accident insurance policy dies as the result of an act committed by him in violation of the law, the beneficiaries may or may not be precluded from recovering upon it. In the absence of a special exclusionary clause, the general view is that the beneficiary may recover. However, if it appears that at the time the insured took out the policy he intended to commit a crime recovery is barred, at least if the death occurred within the contestability period. In order to delimit from the general coverage provisions the risks that would …
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Intervening Act Of A Child, Stanton J. Schuman
Negligence - Proximate Cause - Intervening Act Of A Child, Stanton J. Schuman
Michigan Law Review
Defendant's truck was overloaded with unslaked lime and a piece which fell off was picked up by the child plaintiff, who put the lime in a bucket of damp earth which he was carrying. In the resulting explosion plaintiff lost one eye and injured the other. Held, the intervening act of a person over whom the defendant had no control broke the chain of causation. Leoni v. Reinhard, 327 Pa. 391, 194 A. 490 (1937).
Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review
Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Admiralty - Workmen's Compensation - Is a Hydroplane a Vessel? - Claimant was employed in the care and management of a hydroplane which was moored in navigable waters. The hydroplane began to drag anchor and drift toward the beach, where it was in danger of being wrecked. Claimant waded into the water and was struck by the propeller. Held, claimant is not entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, since a hydroplane while on navigable waters is a vessel, and therefore the jurisdiction of the admiralty excludes that of the State Industrial Commission. Reinhardt v. Newport Flying Service Corp. …