Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Law

Ohio Tort Reform In 1998: The War Continues, Stephen J. Werber Jan 1997

Ohio Tort Reform In 1998: The War Continues, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

For more than a decade a war has been waged between forces seeking legislative reform of tort law, with emphasis on product liability, and the Ohio Supreme Court. The battleground has been the legislative enactments of the Ohio General Assembly. This legislation has faced consistent challenge before the court as a proper exercise of its power of judicial review. Time and time again the court's philosophical approach, predicated on a need to protect injured parties and guarantee compensation for harm, has led to determinations that given legislation fails constitutional scrutiny. In a real sense, the Court has become a super …


Application Of The Discovery Rule To The Ohio Wrongful Death Statute, Edward J. Leonard Jan 1989

Application Of The Discovery Rule To The Ohio Wrongful Death Statute, Edward J. Leonard

Journal of Law and Health

The focus of this note will be on the statute of limitations applicable to the Ohio wrongful death statute. This statute requires that any claim for wrongful death be brought within two years of the date of death. Application of the discovery rule to the wrongful death statute would allow an action to be brought within two years of discovering that the death was the result of a wrongful act.


Garland V. Herrin: Surviving Parents' Remedies For A Child's Wrongful Death - The Pecuniary-Loss Rule And Reckless Infliction Of Emotional Distress, Kathleen Keogh Miller Jan 1984

Garland V. Herrin: Surviving Parents' Remedies For A Child's Wrongful Death - The Pecuniary-Loss Rule And Reckless Infliction Of Emotional Distress, Kathleen Keogh Miller

Cleveland State Law Review

The parents of Bonnie Garland are only two of the innumerable third-party victims who have suffered from the wrongful death of a child. Because the "emotional distress" suffered by the Garlands was comprised of so many elements, the wrongful death of their child provides a framework for analyzing all the harms engendered within the term "emotional distress" and the availability of civil remedies for each of those "separable" harms. The tragedy of the Garlands will be used as a vehicle to assess the success of legislatures and courts in enacting and interpreting wrongful death statutes. The important question becomes whether …


Damages For Wrongful Birth, Joyce E. Barrett Jan 1972

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 Jan 1971

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


Damages In Wrongful Death Actions, Stanley B. Kent Jan 1968

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 …


Ill Treatment As The Cause Of Suicide, William Weaver Jan 1967

Ill Treatment As The Cause Of Suicide, William Weaver

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper attempts to summarize the law with respect to the liability of one whose ill treatment of another ultimately results in the suicidal death of such other.


Death Damages And Conflicts Of Laws, Marvin D. Silver Jan 1961

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 …


Prenatal Injuries, Andrew L. Johnson Jr. Jan 1958

Prenatal Injuries, Andrew L. Johnson Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

Our courts have been increasingly perplexted by the question of whether or not an infant should have a right of action for personal injuries negligently caused to its body prior to birth. Stated another way, does an infant while in its mother's womb have an interest in the freedom from invasion of its bodily security equivalent to and commensurate with that of a person already born?


Wrongful Death Acts Compared Briefly, Robert J. Sawyer Jan 1956

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, …


Law And Logic: Conflict In Ohio's Wrongful Death Statute, Traci P. Donald Jan 1955

Law And Logic: Conflict In Ohio's Wrongful Death Statute, Traci P. Donald

Cleveland State Law Review

The doctrines of res judicata and estoppel by judgment are fundamental rules of the law which in both theory and practice fit into rather well defined situations, with one significant exception. An attempt to apply these doctrines to actions for wrongful death points out a serious vacuum in the law. A consideration of whether an injured person's release during his lifetime of a claim for personal injuries bars later claim of his administrator for wrongful death and pain and suffering of decedent will bring the problem into clear perspective. The solution, and there appears to be none short of statutory …