Law Commons^™

Beyond "Unlimiting" Shareholder Liability: Vicarious Tort Liability For Corporate Officers, Timothy P. Glynn

Vanderbilt Law Review

Debate continues to rage over limited shareholder liability and the social costs it imposes.' While proposals flourish for imposing liability on shareholders to reduce these costs, little attention has been devoted to a more promising solution: vicarious tort liability for high- ranking corporate officers. Limited shareholder liability produces benefits, but it also inflicts costs, including encouraging excessively risky corporate activity. These costs are most pronounced in the tort context because potential tort victims rarely can protect themselves by monitoring corporate activities or bargaining with corporate actors. Commentators disagree on limited shareholder liability's net impact on social utility and what, if …

The Constitutionality Of Statutes Of Repose: Federalism Reigns, Josephine H. Hicks

Vanderbilt Law Review

The development of common-law tort liability, especially since the late 1950s and early 1960s, has broken many of the barriers to plaintiff recovery. The abrogation of the privity requirement, the evolution of the discovery rule, and the advent of strict liability were primary agents in this "assault upon the citadel."' These developments have threatened many potential tort defendants, particularly members of the manufacturing and construction industries and the medical profession. In response to lobbying pressure from these groups, many state legislatures have adopted measures to limit tort recoveries. One of the measures most popular among defendants has been the enactment …

The Tort Liability Of Investigative Reporters, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most significant developments in recent years, in both constitutional and tort law, began with the holding in New York Times v. Sullivan that the first amendment places substantial restrictions on the common law tort action for defamation. Although the ramifications of New York Times are still developing,that continuing reform of the law of defamation will result is to be expected. The readjustment of the balancing of conflicting interests that New York Times represents came about at the behest of the press,and the press have been the primary beneficiaries of these developments. Indeed, some commentators contend that the …

On Product "Design Defects" And Their Actionability, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article has tried to explain and discuss these developments, to evaluate them, to show their relationship to the general state of the law, and to make suggestions on how far they should affect its future development. At present, the question of "design defects" and the determination of when a product is actionable because of the nature of its design appears to be the most agitated and controversial question before the courts in the field of products liability. I hope that this Article can be of some help to the courts in seeking to develop the most suitable answer to …

Limitations On Liability For Economic Loss Caused By Negligence: A Pragmatic Appraisal, Fleming James, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even if liability for indirect economic consequences of negligence may in some cases be too broad and open-ended to be endured, care should be taken to see whether that is true in all types of situations; if it is not true, one must examine whether a rule may be fashioned to separate the wheat from the chaff. In this discussion it has been assumed that if the pragmatic consideration has any validity, it is in the field of indirect economic loss rather than that of physical damage. As one commentator put it, "only a limited amount of physical damage can …

Professional Negligence -- Some General Comments, William J. Curran

Vanderbilt Law Review

An examination of the tort liability of professional people necessarily involves two areas: (a) an examination of fact situations peculiar to the activities of the various professions, and (b) an analysis of the theoretical basis for professional liability as distinguished, if at all, from any other form of tort liability. In the articles to follow in this symposium, there is a concentration on a particular professional group in addressing each of these questions. In this introductory comment, therefore, an effort will be made to examine some of the general principles of professional liability which may be applicable in many areas.

Tort Liability Of Teachers, Paul O. Proehl

Vanderbilt Law Review

The tort liability of teacher qua teacher encompasses a rather narrow ambit and is largely restricted to cases in which it is alleged that the right of the teacher to enforce discipline has been abused and that the teacher is therefore liable in damages for the commission of an intentional tort. The question in such a case is whether the teacher has exceeded, or acted outside the scope of, his privilege.A particular common law concept was developed very early here defining the privilege as one deriving from the fact that the teacher stood in loco parentis,' and the privilege still …

Professional Negligence Of Architects And Engineers, George M. Bell

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our courts have erected a protective legal structure around architects and engineers which has been sufficient, at least in the past, to shelter members of those two professions from any extensive liability for their misconduct. However, it would seem that this legal structure was erected on an unfirm foundation and cracks are appearing in the walls so that occasionally architects and engineers have been held legally responsible for their errors. Such responsibility has in general been confined to a liability to the person hiring the professional service. As yet there has been no case which has ruled the architect or …

Tort Liability For Radiation Injuries, E. Blythe Stason

Vanderbilt Law Review

The discovery that atomic chain reaction will produce substantial quantities of heat together with highly radioactive by-products gives rise to anticipation of an entirely new technology and of many newlines of industrial, medical, and agricultural endeavor. In due course widespread use will be made of the potentialities of this new source of energy.At the same time the likelihood of personal and property injuries resulting from overexposure to radiation brings about a new hazard against which protection must be afforded so far as it is possible to do so. The health and safety codes that are now being formulated at national, …

Local Government Law -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Joseph Martin Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The scope of local government law covers the problems arising out of the functioning of units of government essentially local in character--the municipality, the county, the school district. Involved are the relations between the unit and its constituents or between the units themselves, the validity of its actions, the status of its officers or employees. In the era of increased government, the impact of this body of law is pervading.

Family Responsibility In Tort, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

At common law an unmarried woman occupied no special status as far as tort liability was concerned, and the same rules and standards of responsibility applied to her as to society generally. Since marriage imposed upon a woman a very extensive disability, however, there developed a number of special rules concerning tort responsibility of the married woman.

Marriage did not impose upon the wife any special or peculiar liability for wrongful acts committed by her husband at common law, and, except in certain instances hereafter noted, she is not thus liable today. It is true that since the enactment of …

Local Government Law -- 1954 Tennessee Survey, Clyde L. Ball

Vanderbilt Law Review

Tort Liability: The case of Bricker v. Sims' was one of four cases tried together involving the tort liability of a city and its officers. The Board of Aldermen of the City of Martin adopted a curfew ordinance prohibiting any person from being on a public street or other public place after 11:00 o'clock at night. Plaintiff, while conducting himself in an otherwise lawful manner, was arrested on the public streets of Martin after the curfew hour; he was jailed and the next day was convicted and fined in the city court. Upon appeal to the circuit court the case …

Local Government Law, Clyde L. Ball

Vanderbilt Law Review

This summary is limited to cases decided in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Tennessee, reported during the last year, and dealing with some phase of that body of law which embraces' Municipal Corporations, Counties, Officers, Elections and related topics fitting into the general classification of Local Government Law. No attempt has been made to consider Acts of the 1953 General Assembly which may have affected this field, as most of the legislation in this field is local in nature.

Tort Liability In Aircraft Accidents, Henry G. Gatlin Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over twenty years ago, Justice Cardozo said, "Aviation is today an established method of transportation. The future, even the near future, will make it still more general." Aviation is now a vital part of our daily lives and a familiarity well steeped in American tradition. But even with this apparent adoption of the place of aviation in our economic cycle, it is accompanied by misunderstanding and confusion--witness the placement of serious auto accidents on page six of our newspapers, where headlines scream of aviation's failure if a crash occurs. But as was said in Cohn v. United Air Lines Transport …

Tort Liability For Abusive And Insulting Language, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."This old proverb did not originate with the courts, but it has commonly been regarded as expressing their attitude. Name calling is ordinarily not regarded as actionable under the Anglo-American legal system, no matter how opprobrious or violent the epithet.

A recent Ohio case will illustrate. In Bartow v. Smith,' plaintiff's attorney in his opening statement to the jury declared that a dispute had, arisen between defendant and plaintiff concerning the sale of a farm. Defendant, seeing plaintiff on the city street, came up to her and began …

Tort Liability Of Oil Companies For Acts Of Service Station Operators, William T. Gamble

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the advent of the automobile, travel by motor vehicle has been ever-increasingly prevalent, and consumption of gasoline in the large amounts so required' has necessitated the existence of a great number of retail service stations. For various reasons the major producers of petroleum products have thought it desirable to retain some connection with the distribution of their products until those products pass to the hands of consumers, and consequently nearly all such major producers have established extensive systems of retail outlets which sell only that producer's products and under its exclusive trade names. Because of the great number of …