Law Commons^™

Contribution, Claim Reduction,And Individual Treble Damage Responsibility: Which Path To Reform Of Antitrust Remedies?, Edward D. Cavanagh

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust violations traditionally have been viewed as statutory torts,' yet tort principles of damage allocation, including contribution and claim reduction, have not been extended by analogy in the federal courts to antitrust cases. Moreover, the principle of joint and several liability, made applicable to antitrust conspirators by judicial fiat some eighty years ago, has gone largely unchallenged. While the federal antitrust laws are nearly a century old, the damage allocation debate is of recent vintage, emerging in the wake of the Electrical Equipment Cases, when the private treble damage remedy came into its own.

The recent emergence of contribution and …

Implied Covenants Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing: Loose Cannons Of Liability For Financial Institutions?, Patricia A. Milon

Vanderbilt Law Review

The recent willingness of many courts and juries to impose liability on financial institutions has prompted an increasing number of customers to bring suits against their banks and creditors. These suits often involve claims for millions of dollars in both compensatory and punitive damages for alleged bank or creditor misconduct. For example, the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a jury award of seven and one half million dollars to a borrower whose lender suddenly refused to advance funds under a line of credit agreement. In similar cases involving a bank's refusal to lend money under credit agreements, a California jury awarded …

Constitutional Challenges To The Partial Rejection And Modification Of The Common Law Rule Of Joint And Several Liability Made By The 1986 Washington Tort Reform Act, Cornelius J. Peck

Washington Law Review

The procedural due process questions raised by Section 401 differ in substantial ways from questions in traditional procedural due process cases. In most of the decided cases a governmental body or a private individual was attempting to harm the interests of the person claiming due process protection. Due process requirements were established as protections for the defendant. Only a few of the cases involved a claim of due process in access to a judicial remedy. Persons contesting the constitutionality of Section 401 will argue that the limitations imposed and the procedures required by that Section fail to meet the requirements …

Did Falwell Hustle Hustler? Allowing Public Figures To Recover Emotional Distress Damages For Nonlibelous Satire

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Duress In The Canadian And English Law Of Restitution:, G Hl Fridman

Dalhousie Law Journal

The early history of restitution reveals that duress was relevant in two situations. In the first, one party compelled another to pay him money by reason of some threat. In the second situation, one party compelled another to pay him money which was in fact owed by a third party to the one exercising the compulsion. The former situation was a straight forward one, in which the party exercising the duress falsely or legitimately (though perhaps erroneously) caused the party subjected to the duress to accept that a debt existed between the two parties, or that the party exerting pressure …

Will Tort Reform Combat The Medical Malpractice Insurance Availability And Affordability Problems That Virginia's Physicians Are Facing?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lying On The Stand Won't Cost You A Dime:Should Courts Recognize A Civil Action Intort For Perjury?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporate Behavior And The Social Efficiency Of Tort Law, John A. Siliciano

Michigan Law Review

This article examines this dissonance between accepted theory and observed reality, between what the model envisions and what the tort system seems to deliver. After sketching the model in greater detail, the first section of the article reviews restraints within tort law on the achievement of efficient outcomes. The analysis then turns to the broader legal environment, and describes how legally sanctioned means of liability evasion - such as the corporate law doctrine of limited liability and the bankruptcy rules permitting discharge of obligations - may further undermine the practical utility of the social efficiency model of tort. The final …

The Social Insurance-Deterrence Dilemma Of Modern North American Tort Law: A Canadian Perspective On The Liability Insurance Crisis, Michael J. Trebilcock

San Diego Law Review

This Article surveys the trends in the United States and Canadian tort systems and discusses how they have impacted American and Canadian liability insurance markets. A major thesis of this Article is that the changing complexion of the United States tort system, paralleled by similar trends in Canada, explains many of the recent problems in availability, affordability and adequacy of liability insurance. Changes in parameters of liability and quantum of damage have made it increasingly difficult for insurers to price various types of risks. In particular, the author argues that attempts to pursue deterrence objectives and compensation (social insurance) objectives …

What Must Cause Injury In Products Liability?, Aaron Gershonowitz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Laws—Multistate Torts—Arkansas Relies On Choice-Influencing Considerations And The Better Rule Of Law, Carmen L. Arick

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Serious Tort Law Reform, Stephen D. Sugarman

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, the author argues that tort law generates more perverse behavior than safety and that it is an expensive and unfair system of compensating victims. The author critiques various attempts at tort law reform, suggests abandoning the traditional form of tort law as it exists today, and proposes several wide-ranging changes in the areas of compensation and damages.

Up With Torts, Joseph W. Little

San Diego Law Review

This author presents an additional critique of Prof. Sugarman's tort reform proposal. The author argues that, while tort law does have its problems, potential tort law reforms should be made within the existing tort law framework, rather than completely abandoning the law of torts.

Class Actions For Mass Torts: Doing Individual Justice By Collective Means, David Rosenberg

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Byrd V. Lohr, 488 So. 2d 138 (Fla. 5th Dca 1986), Diane Wagner Carr

Florida State University Law Review

Torts-PUNITIVE DAMAGES-THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT IS ASKED TO DECIDE WHETHER PUNITIVE DAMAGES MAY BE AWARDED AGAINST A DECEASED TORTFEASOR'S ESTATE

On Sugarman On Tort-Chopping, Oscar S. Gray

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, the author critiques Prof. Sugarman's tort reform proposal. While agreeing with Prof. Sugarman's overall proposal, the author suggests that reform could better be achieved through following the themes that have been developing in twentieth century tort law, rather than repudiating the entire system.

How Serious Is Sugarman's "Serious Tort Law Reform"?, Monroe Berkowitz

San Diego Law Review

This author again presents a critique of Prof. Sugarman's tort reform proposal. The author argues that, while Prof. Sugarman's critique and analysis of the problems of current tort law are valid, his solutions will not lead to the desired result.

Serious Tort Reform Isn't: A Critique Of Professor Sugarman's "Serious Tort Law Reform", Harry M. Snyder

San Diego Law Review

In another critique of Prof. Sugarman's proposal, the author argues that Prof. Sugarman's proposals do little to practically solve the current problems of victim compensation, and in fact leave many victims uncompensated and does not provide incentives for safe behavior. The author further argues that Prof. Sugarman's proposals lack the requisite impartiality to objectively effect serious tort reform.

Defining The Agenda For Serious Tort Reform, Alfred W. Cortese Jr., Yosef J. Riemer

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, the authors support Prof. Sugarman's tort reform proposals, but argue that these proposals need more development before they will produce actual change.

North America's Most Ambitious No-Fault Law: Quebec's Auto Insurance Act, Jeffrey O'Connell, Charles Tenser

San Diego Law Review

In this Article, the authors describe the Automobile Insurance Act of Quebec, its provisions for damages, and its exceptions.

Wrongful Death Damages In California: On The Brink Of Full Compensation, Thomas E. Courtney Jr.

San Diego Law Review

This Comment addresses the denial by California courts of mental anguish damages in wrongful death actions, despite strong policy reasons to the contrary. The author discusses the inconsistencies that exist when outdated legal doctrine preclude compensation for a recognized, legitimate element of damages, and proposes that mental anguish damages be recognized in wrongful death actions. Additionally, the author explores the concept of "hedonic value" and its potential application in wrongful death damage assessment.

Wickline V. State: The Emerging Liability Of Third Party Health Care Payors, Dorsett Marc Lyde

San Diego Law Review

This Comment examines the issue of liability of third party health care payors in light of the decision in Wickline v. State. The author argues that third party payor liability for modern medicine is experiencing a tension that revolves around the need for quality medical care and the concurrent problem of the rising cost of medical services. The author further argues that third party payors are being pressured by California courts to provide carefully designed benefit programs that allow physicians to make quality health care decisions without having to worry about the payment source of additional costs. The author assesses …

A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note sets forth a model statute that limits high damage awards, yet will withstand the rigors of judicial scrutiny. After presenting a brief background of the medical malpractice crisis in Part I, Part II outlines the standards of equal protection review that the courts are presently using. The Note then focuses on the constitutional challenges to caps on medical malpractice liability in Part III. Part IV discusses the values and interests that were found to be dispositive in the courts' decisions. Finally, after analyzing the criteria that must be met to ensure that a legislative limitation will survive judicial …

Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note examines the broad, underlying themes of tort theory and argues that, in general, the tort system's primary responsibility should be compensation, rather than deterrence of risk taking. In so far as the production of goods and services causes injury, such losses should be shared and spread as widely and proportionately as possible. Part II discusses the history and nature of the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Part III evaluates the numerous systemic solutions suggested by various commentators. Finally, Part IV proposes a new solution: first party, no-fault medical maloccurrence insurance (MMI).

Comparative Negligence In West Virginia: Beyond Bradley To Pure Comparative Fault, Jeff L. Lewin

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionality Of Punitive Damages Under The Excessive Fines Clause Of The Eighth Amendment, Andrew M. Kenefick

Michigan Law Review

This Note explores whether courts should look beyond the broad language in Ingraham v. Wright and scrutinize punitive damages under the excessive fines clause. Part I sets out the intuitive argument that punitive damages are analogous to criminal fines. Part II analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in Ingraham v. Wright and also reviews the few federal and state court decisions that have dealt with the excessive fines clause in civil cases, most of which have concluded that the clause has no application in a civil setting. This Part asserts that courts cannot rely solely on the Ingraham decision but must …

Apocalypse Now?, Richard L. Marcus

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts by Peter H. Schuck

Road Signs And The Goals Of Justice, Joseph Sanders

Michigan Law Review

Review of Ideals, Beliefs, Attitudes, and the Law: Private Law Perspectives on a Public Law Problem by Guido Calabresi

Asbestos And The Dalkon Shield: Corporate America On Trial, Joseph A. Page

Michigan Law Review

A Review of At Any Cost: Corporate Greed, Women, and the Dalkon Shield by Morton Mintz and Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial by Paul Brodeur

Restitution For The Nonsmoker: Holding The Tobacco Industry Liable For Injuries To Nonsmokers, Kathleen B. Benesh

In the Public Interest

No abstract provided.