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Anderson V. St. Francis-St. George Hospital: Wrongful Living From An American And Jewish Legal Perspective , Daniel Pollack, Chaim Steinmetz, Vicki Lens
Anderson V. St. Francis-St. George Hospital: Wrongful Living From An American And Jewish Legal Perspective , Daniel Pollack, Chaim Steinmetz, Vicki Lens
Cleveland State Law Review
As advances in medical technology have kept people alive longer, the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment has taken on an even more crucial and urgent significance to dying patients and their families. While modern medicine may have learned to save lives, the lives it has saved are often severely diminished and filled with pain and suffering. Although the right to refuse life saving medical treatment is firmly embedded in our nation's laws, what to do when this right is ignored has not been firmly settled. The Anderson court answered this question by "splitting the difference." It affirmed Winter's right to …
An Overview Of Ohio Product Liability Law, Stephen J. Werber
An Overview Of Ohio Product Liability Law, Stephen J. Werber
Cleveland State Law Review
Although claims predicated on harm caused by defective products sounding in warranty and negligence, aided and abetted by the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, existed well before the twentieth century, product liability as we now know it was initially foreshadowed in Ohio in the seminal case of Rogers v. Toni Home Permanent Co. Shortly after the true product liability revolution began, Ohio joined the revolution with the adoption of strict liability in warranty without privity in Lonzrick v. Republic Steel Corp. The Ohio Supreme Court then recognized that this approach to strict liability was no different from the more recognized …
Legal Malpractice In Ohio, John C. Nemeth
Legal Malpractice In Ohio, John C. Nemeth
Cleveland State Law Review
This article will discuss the fundamentals of a legal malpractice case, specifically addressing two areas. The first involves the elements of a legal malpractice case. This discussion will expose two problems that continually appear in legal malpractice litigation: (1) expanding the liability of an attorney to third parties, and (2) determining whether the alleged malpractice was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. The second area of discussion will focus on the time limitations imposed for bringing a legal malpractice action. Additionally, in order to better understand the current state of the law, a brief discussion illustrating the historical development …
Surrogate Motherhood And Tort Liability: Will The New Reproductive Technologies Give Birth To A New Breed Of Prenatal Tort, Nancy Hansbrough
Surrogate Motherhood And Tort Liability: Will The New Reproductive Technologies Give Birth To A New Breed Of Prenatal Tort, Nancy Hansbrough
Cleveland State Law Review
It seems inevitable that new causes of action will evolve as more childless couples resort to the use of the new reproductive methodologies. The prenatal tort claims abounding in precedent today lay a firm foundation for the recognition of a new form of tort liability. This Note will first examine briefly the history of prenatal torts, and present the status of recovery today. The Note will then examine the history and current status of the doctrine of parent-child immunity in the United States. Concentrating on these two concepts, the nature of a tort claim by an injured child for prenatal …
Damages For Wrongful Birth, Joyce E. Barrett
Damages For Wrongful Birth, Joyce E. Barrett
Cleveland State Law Review
While recovery of damages for wrongful death was sanctioned in England as early as 1846 and is now available by statute in every state, the law has been loathe to afford a remedy for wrongful birth. Plaintiffs who have attempted to cope with the problem of people- pollution by various birth control methods, only to have their ecolog- ical efforts stymied by the negligence of a physician performing a sterilization operation or a pharmacist dispensing birth control pills, have been denied a remedy for what, in this writer's view, is the "wrongful birth" of the resulting child. This paper will …
Punitive Damages In Wrongful Death, Gary N. Holthus
Punitive Damages In Wrongful Death, Gary N. Holthus
Cleveland State Law Review
Punitive damages, also known as exemplary damages, smart money, or vindictive damages, are damages awarded to a plaintiff on a finding of malicious, fraudulent, willful, wanton, or reckless conduct by a defendant, indifferent to the rights and safety of others. The purpose of exemplary damages is to protect the public from reckless, willful acts and to punish the wrongdoer
Impact Trauma As Legal Cause Of Cancer, Donald J. Ladanyi
Impact Trauma As Legal Cause Of Cancer, Donald J. Ladanyi
Cleveland State Law Review
Consider the following hypothetical situation: A voluptuous blonde is window shopping along New York's fashionable Fifth Avenue. Her trek brings her to a corner street intersection which she begins to cross. A recklessly driven automobile careens around the corner and strikes the defenseless blonde pedestrian amidships, causing her to be hurled against a utility pole. Her breast strikes the pole and absorbs the full effect of the impact. A local hospital determines that her injuries consist of only a black and blue bruise spot on her breast. The swelling, due to the injury, subsides and the discoloration disappears within a …
Damages In Wrongful Death Actions, Stanley B. Kent
Damages In Wrongful Death Actions, Stanley B. Kent
Cleveland State Law Review
It is an ancient truth that the tort law is amoral in the sense that the degree of culpability of the defendant, assuming, of course, there is any culpability at all, is not a factor in determining damages. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in wrongful death cases where the jury is admonished to fix damages solely on the basis of the "pecuniary injury" that the survivors suffered as the result of the death.' Although this instruction represents the application to death cases of the compensation theory that is so familiar in ordinary injury cases, it seems almost inhumane in …
The Upward Trend In Personal Injury Verdicts, Louis A. Ginocchio
The Upward Trend In Personal Injury Verdicts, Louis A. Ginocchio
Cleveland State Law Review
In preparing this note, the author has drawn on his personal court room experiences and has attempted to provide some insight into what he feels to be the reasons why jury verdicts in personal injury cases have been, and for the foreseeable future will be, increasing in dollar amounts. Only indirectly will it treat the area of a plaintiff's increased opportunities for a verdict in his favor.
Battery In Medical Torts, Don S. Smith
Battery In Medical Torts, Don S. Smith
Cleveland State Law Review
The purpose of this paper is not so much to explore when and under what circumstances a battery takes place but to deal with the problems which the classification itself creates. These include questions of the applicability of special malpractice statutes of limitation, whether an action can be maintained under the Federal Tort Claims Act, coverage under malpractice insurance policies, causation and damages, and the requirement of expert medical testimony to provide a standard against which the conduct of the defendant may be measured.
Damages For Mental Suffering In Discrimination Cases, John E. Duda
Damages For Mental Suffering In Discrimination Cases, John E. Duda
Cleveland State Law Review
This article explores the legal basis for an award of damages for mental suffering caused by unlawful racial discrimination. It necessarily includes religious and nationality discrimination,since these three areas are intertwined in the law. For the most part, the legal principles are applicable alike to all three forms of discrimination. Mental suffering is treated as an element of compensatory damages on the theory that the purpose of such an award is to compensate the claimant for his loss and not necessarily to penalize the discriminator. Punishment enters the analysis only to the extent that the prevailing legal rules governing damage …
Recent Burn Damage Awards, Frederick F. Waugh
Recent Burn Damage Awards, Frederick F. Waugh
Cleveland State Law Review
In ascertaining damages for thermal injuries, the usual elements present in other types of personal injuries must be considered, such as loss of wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of future earnings, loss of consortium, etc. Presentation of the evidence to the jury is a paramount factor, which can make every difference in the award granted. Photographs, expert testimony, and the display of the evidence on the victim's body, such as scars, discolorations, lesions and physical impairment, can be used in a dramatic manner.
Recent Hearing Damage Awards, Denis M. Burgoon
Recent Hearing Damage Awards, Denis M. Burgoon
Cleveland State Law Review
Acoustic trauma and direct injury to the mechanism of hearing are the compensable personal injuries delineated here. As hearing loss has, in all but a few cases, been a minor part of the injury sustained, it is not possible to determine the value of loss of hearing alone. It would appear that partial loss of hearing, either permanent or temporary, is not considered very disabling. $56,000 seems to be the highest award for total loss of hearing with no other injury reported, while $3,500 is the lowest award found for partial loss of hearing. As the cases generally involve various …
Recent Arm And Hand Damage Awards, Robert M. Hisnay
Recent Arm And Hand Damage Awards, Robert M. Hisnay
Cleveland State Law Review
The ever-present question to be answered in personal injury cases, other than liability of course, is the measure of damages to which the plaintiff is entitled. Where the plaintiff has been left with a permanent total, or permanent partial disability, such disability must be properly evaluated and transformed into an element of a money award for damages in order that adequate compensation will be received by the injured party. The problem of evaluating a permanent disability of the arm or hand is as medically complex as the multiplicity of functions which the member performs.
Recent Spine Damage Awards, Sheldon E. Baskin
Recent Spine Damage Awards, Sheldon E. Baskin
Cleveland State Law Review
Spinal injuries generally include trauma to the vertebrae, the intervertebral discs and the ligaments which serve to hold the spinal column together. For the purpose of avoiding duplication this paper will confine itself to the subjects of fractures and dislocations of the vertebrae, injuries to the discs and direct injuries to the spinal cord, excluding discussion of soft tissue back injuries and injuries of the cervical or neck area generally referred to as whiplash injuries.
Recent Leg Damage Awards, Doris Hauth
Recent Leg Damage Awards, Doris Hauth
Cleveland State Law Review
Injuries to the leg include fractures of the various bones of the leg (tibia, femur and fibula), fractures of the foot, ankle, knee or hip, and amputation of one, both, or a part of the leg. This article includes a digest of cases arising in the last five years involving leg injuries. The facts in each case are briefly stated and the damage award specified.
Admission Of Liability, Richard H. Burgess
Admission Of Liability, Richard H. Burgess
Cleveland State Law Review
There is a great amount of resistance to the admission of liability when the slightest defense is available. Many defendants' attorneys would prefer to take the long chance of hoping for an unexpected verdict rather than admit fault and leave only the issue of damages to the jury. Surprisingly, there have actually been cases in which liability was admitted and the jury returned a verdict of no cause of action. Generally speaking, though, an admission of liability will tend to keep the damage award reasonable, but it will take away the slight possibility of an unexpected defendant's verdict.
Death Damages And Conflicts Of Laws, Marvin D. Silver
Death Damages And Conflicts Of Laws, Marvin D. Silver
Cleveland State Law Review
Since the adoption of the Fatal Accidents Act of 1846 in the United Kingdom, each of the fifty United States has created by statute a similar right of action which pertains to the survivors or to the estate of the decedent whose death resulted from the wrongful acts of another. During recent years, fourteen states have incorporated within their wrongful death statutes a maximum limitation on the amount of damages recoverable. These restrictions consistently trouble the courts when a wrongful death occurs in one of these limiting states and the suit is brought elsewhere. However, the courts have, with a …
Recent Head Damage Awards, Eileen Kelley
Recent Head Damage Awards, Eileen Kelley
Cleveland State Law Review
Head trauma is responsible for more litigation than any other single bodily mechanical damage. Belli ranks brain injuries second only to the back and spine in producing permanent and crippling disabilities.
Recent Eye Damage Awards, Margaret Mazza
Recent Eye Damage Awards, Margaret Mazza
Cleveland State Law Review
Impairment of vision may be either temporary or permanent and may be caused by direct trauma, burns, or any other injury to the face near the area of the eyes. Vision may be impaired or completely lost due to injury to the brain or associated nerves. The list of cases below gives descriptions and awards in some recent eye injury suits.
Recent Back Damage Awards, Carl H. Miller
Recent Back Damage Awards, Carl H. Miller
Cleveland State Law Review
Injuries to the human back have long perplexed the legal world. This is especially true of the soft tissue area of the back, where objective medical tests give way to the vagueness of a "sprained" muscle, and the court finds itself torn between the desire to adequately compensate an injured plaintiff and the caution that must prevail where objective tests are inadequate. Generally speaking, we will be concerned with that portion of the back that is not skeletal in nature,and though the interaction of the spine with the muscular structure permits little latitude in separating them, we will do so …
Recent Whiplash Damage Awards, Esther Weissman
Recent Whiplash Damage Awards, Esther Weissman
Cleveland State Law Review
In viewing more than 100 recent appellate cases concerning whiplash, one is struck by the lack of any definite standard or pattern of awards.
Some Notes On The Malayan Law Of Negligence, A. E. S. Tay, J. H. M. Heah
Some Notes On The Malayan Law Of Negligence, A. E. S. Tay, J. H. M. Heah
Cleveland State Law Review
In the annals of the spread of the common law to other lands and other ways, Malaya may deserve a modest place, but, as the selection here no doubt shows, so far it has made no significant contribution to the intellectual content of that law. It has neither produced nor harboured a Cardozo or a Dixon. At best, its judges have applied common law principles simply but soundly; they have never, at least in tort, been subtle or illuminating. Its legal history is of interest for its own sake; its legal achievement awaits us in the future, not in the …
Tort Trends In 1957, Melvin M. Belli
Tort Trends In 1957, Melvin M. Belli
Cleveland State Law Review
This articles discusses trends in tort cases in 1957, including adequate awards, avaition law, jury fixing, the need for medico-legal training, insurance limits, consortium, charitable immunity, assumption of risk, res ipsa loquitur, workmen's compensation, injuries in utero, warranties, interfamilial suits, expert witnesses, dead men's statutes, and personal injury law reform.
Wrongful Death Acts Compared Briefly, Robert J. Sawyer
Wrongful Death Acts Compared Briefly, Robert J. Sawyer
Cleveland State Law Review
The right of action for wrongful death was not seriously considered by the common law courts until 1846. It has not been given protection by most of our state constitutions despite the fact that the Federal Constitution has guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, most states have enacted "Wrongful Death" statutes to allow protection to their inhabitants. In order for the next of kin to damages in a Wrongful Death action, there must be shown a relationship to the deceased. The fact must be established that there was an interest akin to insurable interest in the deceased, …
Excessive Personal Injury Awards; A Problem And A Recommendation, Anthony R. Nardi
Excessive Personal Injury Awards; A Problem And A Recommendation, Anthony R. Nardi
Cleveland State Law Review
An improved, workable, and sensible test for "excessiveness" in the area of personal injury awards must be established. It is fairly easy to confuse "excessive" with the concept of "large" or "high" awards. In some particular instances perhaps relatively larger or higher awards are proper in today's economy. But, the bulk of over a million injury cases is at a level fairly easy to classify and thereby to compensate properly. When proper standards are established, then awards become excessive when they go beyond this just and equitable measure. Classifications and guides for the vast majority of personal injury claims will …