Law Commons^™

Apportioning Responsibility Among Joint Tortfeasors For International Law Violations, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

With the new wave of claims against corporations for human rights violations – particularly in the context of aiding and abetting government abuse – there are unusually difficult problems of joint tortfeasor liability. In many circumstances, one tortfeasor – the corporation – is a deep-pocketed defendant, easily subject to suit, but only marginally involved in the unlawful conduct. Another tortfeasor – the sovereign – is a central player in the unlawful conduct, but, with limited exceptions, is immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. A third tortfeasor – the low-level security personnel – accused of actually committing the …

Attorney Referral, Negligence, And Vicarious Liability, Bruce Ching

Journal Articles

As a consequence of requests from clients or prospective clients, lawyers are often placed in a position of giving referrals, especially in situations of cross-specialty referrals (such as an estate planning attorney whose longtime client has become a party in a personal injury lawsuit) or cross-jurisdictional referrals (such as an attorney in Michigan who is contacted by a prospective client who must respond to a lawsuit that was filed in Ohio).

But if the lawyer who receives the referral commits malpractice in handling the case, can the lawyer who made the referral be held liable for the client's loss? This …

Tort Law: The Languages Of Duty, Jay Tidmarsh

Journal Articles

Summarizing the developments in Indiana tort law is a daunting, perhaps impossible task. In more than 115 reported opinions, state and federal courts wrestled with issues, many of them issues of first impression, which ranged across the spectrum of tort law. A constant thread runs through many of these cases. The thread is duty. Time and again during the past year, Indiana courts were required to decide whether a particular set of facts gave rise to a duty of care by the defendant or an obligation of avoidance by the plaintiff.

Some of the cases involved novel legal duties, while …

The Manville Bankruptcy: Treating Mass Tort Claims In Chapter 11 Proceedings, Robert Jones

Journal Articles

The reorganization petition filed by the Manville Corporation, the nation’s largest asbestos manufacturer in 1982 is an attempt by a healthy and solvent corporation to declare bankruptcy. It differs greatly from a traditional reorganization case, which involves a debtor that knows who its creditors are and how much it owes them. Manville does not know who the majority of its creditors are or the amount of its potential tort liability. It is instead using the 1978 Bankruptcy Reform Act's Chapter 11 reorganization provisions to seek shelter from a huge but speculative tort liability. In doing so Manville presents a major …