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Full-Text Articles in Law
The "Enlightened Barbarity" Of Inclusive Fitness And Wrongful Death: Biological Justifications For An Investment Theory Of Loss In Wycko V. Gnodtke, Ryan Shannon
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Wrongful death laws should permit and encourage courts and juries to consider the survivors' investment in decedents when determining wrongful death damages, given new biological justifications for this theory of loss. The investment theory of damages, which permits an award of damages based on the investment of financial resources relatives make in one another, originated in Michigan's courts in the early 1 960s, but as of present day has been largely abrogated. In the context of modern understandings of evolutionary biology, including kin selection theory and sociobiology, the investment theory of recovery accords with the goals of corrective justice as …
Parents Should Not Be Legally Liable For Refusing To Vaccinate Their Children, Jay Gordon
Parents Should Not Be Legally Liable For Refusing To Vaccinate Their Children, Jay Gordon
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Should a parent who takes advantage of a personal belief exemption to avoid vaccinating a child be held liable if that child infects other people? No, because there are valid medical reasons for choosing this exemption and tracing direct transmission of these illnesses from an unvaccinated child to another person is virtually impossible.
The Problem Of Vaccination Noncompliance: Public Health Goals And The Limitations Of Tort Law, Daniel B. Rubin, Sophie Kasimow
The Problem Of Vaccination Noncompliance: Public Health Goals And The Limitations Of Tort Law, Daniel B. Rubin, Sophie Kasimow
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Imposing tort liability on parents who fail to vaccinate their children would not serve the public health and public policy interests that drive childhood immunization efforts. The public policy goals of vaccination are to slow the spread of disease and to reduce mortality and morbidity. Our country’s public health laws already play a substantial role in furthering these goals. Although application of tort law may be an appropriate response to some of the problems that result from vaccination noncompliance, there also is a need to cultivate public understanding of the connection between individual actions and collective wellbeing. It is doubtful …
Gambling With The Health Of Others, Stephen P. Teret, Jon S. Vernick
Gambling With The Health Of Others, Stephen P. Teret, Jon S. Vernick
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The health and wellbeing of the public is, in part, a function of the behavior of individuals. When one individual’s behavior places another at a foreseeable and easily preventable risk of illness or injury, tort liability can play a valuable role in discouraging that conduct. This is true in the context of childhood immunization.
Unintended Consequences: The Primacy Of Public Trust In Vaccination, Jason L. Schwartz
Unintended Consequences: The Primacy Of Public Trust In Vaccination, Jason L. Schwartz
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The increasing availability of personal belief exemptions from state vaccination requirements is a growing concern among proponents of vaccination. Holding parents of non-vaccinated children liable to those they infect is among the responses proposed to maintain high vaccination rates. Even if motivated by a sincere desire to maximize the benefits of vaccination throughout society, such a step would be inadvisable, further entrenching opponents of vaccination and adding to the atmosphere of confusion and unnecessary alarm that has become increasingly common among parents of children for whom vaccination is recommended.
Challenging Personal Belief Immunization Exemptions: Considering Legal Responses, Alexandra Stewart
Challenging Personal Belief Immunization Exemptions: Considering Legal Responses, Alexandra Stewart
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Public health agencies and citizens should employ legal approaches to hold parents accountable for refusing to vaccinate their children. The judiciary would craft an effective response to defeat the threat posed by these parents. Public-nuisance law may offer a legal mechanism to hold vaccine objectors liable for their actions.
Choices Should Have Consequences: Failure To Vaccinate, Harm To Others, And Civil Liability, Douglas S. Diekema
Choices Should Have Consequences: Failure To Vaccinate, Harm To Others, And Civil Liability, Douglas S. Diekema
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
A parent’s decision not to vaccinate a child may place others at risk if the child becomes infected and exposes others to the disease. Should an individual harmed by an infection transmitted from a child whose parents chose to forgo vaccination have a negligence claim against those parents? While I do not hold a legal degree and therefore cannot speak directly to issues of law, as a physician and ethicist it seems to me that the basic elements that comprise negligence claims—harm, duty, breach of duty, and causation—are met in some cases where parents forgo vaccination.
Torts - Liability Of Landowner To Pedestrian For Acts Of Third Persons, John J. Adams
Torts - Liability Of Landowner To Pedestrian For Acts Of Third Persons, John J. Adams
Michigan Law Review
Children built a fire in the street outside defendant's premises after business hours. They went on defendant's premises and took gasoline which defendant had allowed to collect in a drip can under a spigot. When they threw the gas toward the fire it splashed on plaintiff, an infant standing nearby; his clothing caught fire when he tripped and fell toward the fire. There was evidence that defendant knew the children had been playing on his premises. Held, that plaintiff has failed to show that defendant was negligent in the conduct of his business, and that the doctrine of attractive …
Municipal Corporations - Immunity Of City From Tort Liability - Attractive Nuisance
Municipal Corporations - Immunity Of City From Tort Liability - Attractive Nuisance
Michigan Law Review
The minor plaintiff, a child of eleven, was injured when she fell from a swing in a playground maintained by the defendant, and struck a jagged stone which protruded from the surface of the earth about eight feet beyond the base of the swing. She and her parents joined as plaintiffs in this suit, alleging that the defendant was negligent in failing to keep the ground around the swing in a reasonably safe condition and free from dangerous objects upon which a child might fall. Held, the defendant is liable for its failure to keep the earth around the …
Damages - Death Of Minor Child Caused By Negligent Act
Damages - Death Of Minor Child Caused By Negligent Act
Michigan Law Review
The defendant's negligence, resulting in the death of a child four years and nine months old, caused the jury to assess damages at $4,500 in an action brought for the benefit of the parents pursuant to the terms of the Death Act, (2 N. J. Comp. Stat. 1907, 1908 (1910)) which provides that "in every such action the jury may give such damages as they shall deem fair and just with reference to the pecuniary injury resulting from such death . . . . " On appeal, the supreme court held the damages excessive, and reduced the amount of recovery …
Torts-Right Of Privacy
Michigan Law Review
Petition by the plaintiffs alleging an invasion of their right of privacy by an unauthorized publication of a picture of their malformed child, taken without their consent after its death, held, on demurrer, to state a cause of action. Bazemore v. Savannah Hospital et al. (Ga. 1930). 155 S.E. 194.
Master And Servant-Parent And Child-Liability Of Master When Servant Negligently Injures His Own Son
Master And Servant-Parent And Child-Liability Of Master When Servant Negligently Injures His Own Son
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff was injured through the negligence of his father who was employed by the defendant. The parent was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the injury. Held, plaintiff could recover from his father's employer, even though the child could not have sued his father. Chase v. New Haven Waste Material Corporation (Conn. 1930) 150 Atl. 107.