Law Commons^™

Insuring Against Medical Professional Liability, Bernard D. Hirsh

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this article is to analyze the protection provided in medical professional liability policies. Part I consists of a discussion of some of the factors involved in the purchase of malpractice insurance and an examination of the principal insuring agreements, exclusions, and conditions stated in the standard policy. Part II is a summary of the results of a questionnaire sent by the Law Division of the American Medical Association to insurance companies to determine their opinions regarding insurance coverage in a series of hypothetical cases.

Liability For Negligence Of Pharmacists, George S. King

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this article is to discuss the liability of pharmacists for professional negligence.' Thus it will be limited to that conduct which arises out of their professional activity and is to be distinguished from liability which may arise out of their activity as a storekeeper or a druggist, using the latter term in the general sense to include all those who operate a drug store or in any fashion engage in the business of supplying drugs, whether licensed pharmacists or not. For example, the pharmaceutical manufacturer may well be classed as a druggist, but his legal responsibilities would …

Liability Of Funeral Directors For Negligence, Edgar E. Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

Funeral directing cannot be classed absolutely as a "profession."'On the contrary, the funeral director's principal concern probably is the sale of caskets and burial supplies, thus making him a "merchant"or "trader." However, for purposes of rendering services in connection with the care and burial of the dead as well as in accommodating the family and friends of the deceased, the funeral director is considered a "professional man." It is the latter capacity which is under consideration here. It is inconsequential for legal purposes whether a mortician is referred to as a "funeral director," an "embalmer," or an "undertaker." An embalmer …

Professional Negligence Liability Of Public Accountants, Carl S. Hawkins

Vanderbilt Law Review

At least since 1905, in this country, accountants have been recognized as "a skilled professional class ... subject generally to the same rules of liability for negligence in the practice of their profession as are members of other skilled professions."' The question, then, is not whether the usual concepts of professional negligence apply to accountants, but how. What situations have produced malpractice litigation? What are the specific practices or omissions which have resulted in liability? And what are the limits of liability? Like other professionals, the accountant usually gets into the position where he must exercise his professional skill as …

Rights And Powers: What Are They?, Merton Ferson

Vanderbilt Law Review

One thing that distinguishes a lawyer from other educated persons is his facility in the use of legal concepts. And yet there is a current notion that the study of legal concepts, as such, is academic and im-practical. Professor F. H. Lawson, delivering the Cooley Lectures at the University of Michigan in 1953, notes that it is fashionable among both civil and common lawyers to disparage the use of concepts. He then goes on to say: "This is of course nonsense. The very persons who inveigh against the use of concepts have been so thoroughly educated in a system built …

The Duty To Warn Allergic Users Of Products, Dix W. Noel

Vanderbilt Law Review

There has been much recent development of the law in the field of products liability, and one of the more significant aspects of this development relates to harm suffered by allergic users of cosmetics, dyed clothing, and other familiar products. The medical descriptions of allergy are complicated and changing, but from a legal standpoint the significant factor is that an allergic reaction is one suffered by only a minority of the persons exposed to a particular substance. A description which brings out this factor is one which defines allergy or hyper-sensitivity as "the condition or state of an individual who …

Survey Extended -- The Literature Of Military Law Since 1952, John E. Hartnett, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The passage of six years since the publication of A Survey of the Literature of Military Law--A Selective Bibliography' has not seen any slackening in popular and professional interest in military law noted in the original article. Indeed, the wide attention directed to the area of military law by the controversial decisions of the Supreme Court in the Toth and Covert cases has in a measure increased the flow of comment. Accordingly, the writer considered it in order to collect and publish the bibliographical information on the literature which has appeared in the interim, and in some measure to appraise …

Judicial Review And Party Politics, Wallace Mendelson

Vanderbilt Law Review

It has been suggested that intrusion upon legislative policy by judicial review "is a consequence of that fragmentation of political power which is normal in the United States. No cohesive majority,such as normally exists in Britain, would permit a politically irresponsible judiciary to usurp decision--making [policy] functions, but, for complex social and institutional reasons, there are few issues in the United States on which cohesive majorities exist." When they do exist, as in the recent tidal wave of anti-communism, the Supreme Court is not apt to test its strength against them. Rather it practices a judicious self-restraint. Distinguishing between parliamentary …

Parody And Burlesque -- Fair Use Or Copyright Infringement?, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Columbia Broadcasting System v. Loew's, Inc.,' the Supreme Court of the United States aroused great concern in the entertainment world when it affirmed (by an evenly divided court) a lower court decision enjoining CBS from producing a television burlesque by comedian Jack Benny of the motion picture Gaslight. Plaintiff Loew's had claimed an infringement of their copyright. CBS countered with the contention that their parody was a "fair use" of plaintiff's work. In affirming, the Supreme Court, in its initial consideration of this issue, placed its imprimatur upon a decision which takes the position that parody and burlesque do …

Book Reviews, Stanley D. Rose, Wallace Mendelson (Reviewer), Lawrence Herman (Reviewer), William R. Anderson (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

THE PRESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS, THE COLLAPSE OF FEDERALISM, 1795-1800. By Stephen G. Kurtz-- Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957. Pp. 448. $8.50.

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THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS, THE FORMATION OF PARTY ORGANIZATION, 1789-1801. By Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.-- Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957. Pp. x, 279. $6.00.

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THE SUPREME COURT FROM TAFT TO WARREN-- By Alpheus T. Mason-- Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958. Pp. 250. $4.95.

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THE LAW OF AWOL. By Alfred Avins. New York: Oceana Publications, 1957. Pp. xxxi, 288. $4.95. --

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TRAFFIC VICTIMS, TORT LAW & INSURANCE. By Leon Green. …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Labor Unions and Public Policy By Edward H. Chamberlin, Philip D. Bradley, Gerald D. Reilly and Roscoe Pound Washington, D.C.:American Enterprise Association, 1958. Pp. 177. $4.50.

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The Worker Views His Union By Joel Seidman, Jack London, Bernard Karsh and Daisy L. Tagliacozzo Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958. Pp. xi, 300. $5.75.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Due Process of Law--Constitutionality of the Federal Youth Corrections Act in Its Application to Youthful Criminal Offenders

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Constitutional Law--Legislative Power--Infringement of Constitutional Guaranties by Demands of Legislative Investigating Committees for the Production of Membership Lists

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Courts--Process--Immunity of Nonresident Defendants in Federal Criminal Actions from Service of State Civil Process

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Damages--Installment Verdict in Tort Action

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Domestic Relations--Separation--Suit by Mentally Incompetent Wife

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Interstate Commerce--Hobbs Act--"Robbery" Provision Construed as Requiring Proof of Common Law Elements of Offense

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Taxation--Income--Determination of "Useful Life" of a Business Asset for Purposes of Depreciation

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Taxation--Income--Full Payment of Tax Deficiency as …

Radiation Protection Regulation: An Opportunity For Cooperative Federalism, Robert L. Hamilton, William A.W. Krebs, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this article is to explore the question of how governmental responsibility for regulation of radiation hazards associated with atomic energy activities may best be allocated between the federal government and the states. While division of such responsibility is theoretically not essential--it being legally conceivable that the federal government could shoulder the entire responsibility alone or could leave it entirely to the states--various factors which will be mentioned below appear to make some sort of division of responsibility a practical necessity. To explore this question of division of responsibility, we shall first review the nature of radiation and …

The Legal Aspects Of The Development Of Atomic Energy In The United Kingdom, C. J. Highton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was constituted as a public corporation in 1954 by the Atomic Energy Authority Act.' The Government had decided in the previous year that the atomic energy undertaking, then in the hands of the Minister of Supply, should be transferred to a non-departmental organization and a committee of three under the chairmanship of Lord Waverley had been appointed to devise a plan for the transfer and to work out the most suitable form for the new organization. The committee fulfilled their task with admirable clarity, but many legal problems arose in drafting the bill, which …

Atomic Energy And The Law: A Bibliography, Eileen M. Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

To compile a bibliography, it is a prerequisite that one be a lover of books. It is hoped that this paper will be of assistance to those in need and secondarily, that it might possibly open the world of the bibliophile to many others and give Brooklyn a little competition. Atomic energy is a fascinating field for the bibliographer; the surface has yet to be scratched. The work presented is divided into seven sections:

I. Atomic Energy Legislation, 1946-1958.

II. Publications of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 1945/46-1958.

III. Books. (Annotated.)

IV. Periodicals-U. S. and Foreign. (Annotated.)

V. Selected …

Book Note, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Written primarily for the layman, this book reads much like a historical novel, detailing the lives of the two men whose personalities came into such violent conflict in a troubled time. Two-thirds of the book sets the stage for the trial which occupies the final third of the volume. The trial portion of the book consists mainly of quotes from the arguments of counsel, illustrating the rhetorical effects achieved by the attorneys in arguing a case that loomed large in the public eye. The authors--a husband and wife team, neither of whom appears to have a legal background--have successfully edited …

International Cooperation In The Peaceful Uses Of Atomic Energy, David F. Cavers

Vanderbilt Law Review

Today cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy is occurring under bilateral agreements between the major atomic powers--the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union--and many other nations. Schemes of cooperation on a regional basis are well advanced in Europe and are emerging elsewhere. A new international agency with an almost world-wide constituency, Communist China being the chief omission, has come into being. After a three-year interval, the second of two great international conferences for the exchange of knowledge concerning nuclear fission and thermonuclear fusion was held in Geneva in the past summer. At Geneva, American scientists …

Atomic Energy And World Trade, Aley Allan

Vanderbilt Law Review

In what follows an attempt is made first to arrive at an estimate of the pattern and the volume of trade in atomic equipment and services in the areas and for the period under discussion (1960-1970); and then a brief survey is attempted of the principal problems affecting this trade. Most of what is discussed is not the usual stuff of a legal periodical. But it will be apparent that a great deal of it has important implications for lawyers and lawyering. In any case one may be forgiven, perhaps, for trying to describe in skeletal form the context in …

Effects Of Radiation On Man, Clinton C. Powell

Vanderbilt Law Review

Shortly after the discovery of natural radioactivity and of x-rays(now more properly known as roentgen rays) during the final decade of the last century, it became apparent that these invisible radiations could produce serious effects on the human body in a relatively short period of time. Three or four decades ago additional effects became apparent in individuals who had received relatively large radiation exposures. The cumulative nature of radiation effects and the fact that detectable changes may be delayed for many years have become increasingly apparent with the passage of time. The rapid expansion in potential exposure accompanying the discovery …

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, …

The Law Of Reactor Safety, Harold P. Green

Vanderbilt Law Review

Nuclear reactors are devices for creating and controlling nuclear chain reactions. Reactors come in many sizes and shapes and have various uses. The most dramatic and probably the most important use of reactors from the economic standpoint is to provide power in the form of electricity or heat. Some such power reactors may be stationary; others may be mobile, e.g., those which exist to provide propulsive force and hence move from place to place with their vehicle. Other reactors may be used for various industrial purposes such as for the testing of materials. Still other reactors are used primarily for …

Workmen's Compensation And Radiation Injury, Gerald L. Hutton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The utilitarian and research value of radioisotopes, x-ray and fluoroscopic devices, cyclotrons and other particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and other materials or devices emitting ionizing radiation is unquestioned. Ionizing radiation, however, can prove harmful as well as beneficial depending upon the care which is exercised in its use. Numerous cases of x-ray and radium injuries are reported in the literature, such injuries dating from 1896 when Roentgen first announced the discovery of x-rays. The most publicized cases of radiation injury are those occurring in the radium poisoning or "dial painters" cases in the 1920's. Unlike most noxious materials encountered in …

Labor Relations In The Atomic Program, David B. Johnson

Vanderbilt Law Review

As in other areas of the United States program, the most pervasive influence in labor relations in atomic energy has been the federal government. The non-government sector is expanding rapidly in terms of the number of companies launching atomic energy operations, but this expansion is still in the exploratory and research and development stage. During this period of development in the private sector of the industry employers have relatively heavy need for engineering and technical skills and less for manual workers who are more susceptible to union organization. Although some problems for management and labor in the private sector of …

Antitrust Provisions Of The Atomic Energy Act, Richard Cosway

Vanderbilt Law Review

"It is ... declared to be the policy of the United States that... the development, use, and control of atomic energy shall be directed so as to promote world peace, improve the general welfare, increase the standard of living, and strengthen free competition in private enterprise." These are almost the first words of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which, in stating the policy of the United States, establish the goals to be sought. As stated, the strengthening of free competition is a goal; it is not the device by which the other goals are to be achieved. Apparently of …

Federal Support Of Domestic Atomic Power Development -- The Policy Issues, James L. Morrisson

Vanderbilt Law Review

The possibility that controlled nuclear fission could produce useful energy was recognized early in 1939. During World War II developmental effort was focused on production of the bomb. Since the war, the U. S. atomic power program has grown to substantial proportions.By June 30, 1958, there were in operation in the United States one full scale civilian power reactor and seven civilian power reactor experiments, with a total rated electrical capacity of over 77,000 kw, as well as a number of military propulsion reactors and reactor experiments. There are currently planned fourteen power reactors in addition to the one now …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a hearing before the Commissioner of Investigation of the City of New York, appellant refused to state whether he was then a member of the Communist Party and based his refusal to answer on the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. He was thereafter discharged as an employee of the New York Transit Authority pursuant to provisions of the New York Security Risk Law' which allows dismissal of employees of security agencies who are found to be of "doubtful trust and reliability." Without seeking administrative remedies, appellant brought a proceeding in the state court for reinstatement contending that …

Book Reviews, William J. Curran, Edward R. Hayes (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Forensic Medicine By Douglas J. A. Kerr New York: MacMillan Co.,1957. Pp. v, 363. $6.50.

Practical Forensic Medicine By Francis E. Camps & W. B. Purchase New York: MacMillan Co., Pp. vii, 541. $13.50.

reviewer: William J. Curran

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Close Corporations: Law and Practice By F. Hodge O'Neal. Chicago: Callaghan & Co. 2v. Pp xx, 369; vii, 437. $30.00.

reviewer: Edward R. Hayes

The Lawyer's Duties And Responsibilities In The Nuclear Age, Leo A. Huard

Vanderbilt Law Review

This nation is now well into the formative years of an industrial revolution founded upon the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.' What we do as a nation in the next several years with this versatile tool which science has presented to us will literally determine the "shape of things to come" for ourselves and for the world. Among other things, this industrial revolution, like its predecessor, will force us to reassess and revise legal doctrines which have become fixed and familiar through time and widespread use. In simple terms, the coming changes in trade and industry are bound to affect …

Creditors' Rights And Security Transactions -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Forrest W. Lacey

Vanderbilt Law Review

Fraudulent Conveyances: In Nashville Milk Producers, Inc. v. Alston' a bill to set aside transfers of a herd of dairy cattle alleged that the debtor in 1953 purported to transfer the herd to his wife, and that in 1955 the wife purported to transfer the herd to their son.Both transfers were alleged to have been made for no consideration,or a consideration that was not fair and adequate. The bill also charged that the conveyances rendered the grantor insolvent, and were part of a general scheme participated in by all three defendants to hinder, delay and defraud existing and subsequent creditors. …

Domestic Relations -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, William J. Harbison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Three cases during the survey period dealt directly or indirectly with the subject of adoptions.

In two cases which were discussed in the 1957 survey,' petitions for the adoption of two children were denied because of domestic difficulties in the home of the petitioning parents. The children were ordered to be placed in custody of the State Welfare Department. The foster mother, however, did not comply with this order promptly and was adjudged in contempt by the trial court where her petitions had been filed. The supreme court affirmed the contempt decree in a recently reported case.