Law Commons^™

Tort Law: The American And Louisiana Perspectives, William Corbett, Frank Maraist, John Church

William R. Corbett

Tort Law: The American and Louisiana Perspectives, Second Edition has as its primary objective a study of tort law in the United States and Louisiana. It differs from most other torts casebooks, however, in that it has a secondary objective of providing an exercise in comparative law. In the United States, we often overlook the fact that the common law system that prevails in our nation is not the only legal system in the world. Much of the world applies a civil law approach in which a civil code has a more prominent role than case law. In a world …

A Somewhat Modest Proposal To Prevent Adultery And Save Families: Two Old Torts Looking For A New Career, William R. Corbett

William R. Corbett

No abstract provided.

Faragher, Ellerth, And The Federal Law Of Vicarious Liability For Sexual Harassment By Supervisors: Something Lost, Something Gained, And Something To Guard Against, William Corbett

William R. Corbett

In this Essay, the author faces his nightmare exam question: he must define "sexual harassment" to the satisfaction of several potential graders with different perspectives on sexual harassment law. His valiant effort to justify his response leads him to a discussion of the federal law of vicarious liability for sexual harassment by supervisors after the Supreme Court's recent rejection of tort law respondeat superior analysis for such claims under Title VII. The author argues that, while the rejection of the tort standard for vicarious liability in Title VII claims removes the longstanding connection between Title VII law and state tort …

Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself, William Corbett

William R. Corbett

Has too much tort law been incorporated into the case law under the federal employment discrimination statutes? The debate on this issue has been reinvigorated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital, 131 S. Ct. 1186 (2011). In Staub the Court referred to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a federal employment discrimination statute, as a “federal tort.” The Court then adopted the tort doctrine of proximate cause as the standard for evaluating subordinate bias (or “cat’s paw”) liability. Staub was not the first case in which the Court has suggested that a federal employment …

Answering A Fool According To His Folly: Ruminations On Comparative Fault Thirty Years On, Frank L. Maraist, H. Alston Johnson Iii, Thomas C. Galligan Jr., William R. Corbett

William R. Corbett

No abstract provided.

Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself, Bill Corbett

William R. Corbett

Unmasking a Pretext for Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal to Let Employment Discrimination Speak for Itself

William R. Corbett*

Has too much tort law been incorporated into the case law under the federal employment discrimination statutes? The debate on this issue has been reinvigorated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital, 131 S. Ct. 1186 (2011). In Staub the Court referred to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a federal employment discrimination statute, as a “federal tort.” The Court then adopted the tort doctrine of proximate cause as the standard for evaluating subordinate bias (or …