Law Commons^™

Keeping The Pierringer Promise: Fair Settlements And Fair Trials, Peter B. Knapp

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores why Perringer releases have failed to promise fairness to the nonsettling defendant. For over thirty years, Pierringer releases have been part of the ebb and flow of civil litigation. In 1978, the Minnesota Supreme Court officially approved the use of Pierringer releases in Minnesota. When first adopted, the release seemed to promise something for everyone. The Pierringer release even offered a promise of fairness to the nonsettling defendant: Be assured that, no matter what the outcome of trial, you will pay no more than your “fair share” of the verdict. Unfortunately, however, largely because of the impact …

Critical Rules In Negotiating Sales Contracts: The Lawyer's Job, James J. White

Other Publications

In my experience, lawyers begin negotiating only after the business people have decided upon the description and quality of the product, the time of delivery, and the mode and amount of payment. The lawyers are left with the pathological problems--who gets what in case of trouble. Most of those problems relate to the seller's responsibility if the product does not conform to the contract or otherwise fails to please the buyer. These failures can cause economic loss to the buyer, economic loss to a remote purchaser, or personal injury or property damage to immediate or remote parties. Third parties may …

Whose Crime Is It Anyway?: Liability For The Lethal Acts Of Nonparticipants In The Felony, Michelle S. Simon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the methodology that courts should employ when determining the liability of a defendant under the felony-murder doctrine, where the perpetration of a felony results in the death of a nonparticipant in the crime by another nonparticipant. Part I of the Article addresses the history of the doctrine, the policies that have sustained it throughout history, and the modern statutory promulgations of the rule. Part II explores not only how courts have handled the doctrine's causation requirement, but also how legislatures have responded to this requirement. Further, Part II discusses the court-created theories of agency and proximate cause. …

Deterring Inefficient Pharmaceutical Litigation: An Economic Rationale For The Fda Regulatory Compliance Defense, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines the interaction between direct regulation of pharmaceuticals under the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the indirect regulation of pharmaceuticals provided by common law tort incentives. The Article concludes that tort liability is generally inappropriate in cases where manufacturers have complied with the FDCA. The Article begins with a description of the FDCA's operation, and provides an overview of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) role in the drug approval process and drug labeling. This overview will demonstrate the need for centralized control over drug labeling. Moreover, we will provide an explanation of the costs …

The National Implications Of Liability Reforms For General Liability And Medical Malpractice Insurance, W. Kip Viscusi, Patricia Born

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The stabilization of the insurance market may lead to lower prices for products and for medical care, but will also generally lead to lower values of tort awards as well. If the social objective was simply to reduce losses, then that objective could be achieved by abolishing tort liability altogether. Our societal concerns are clearly much broader. In the absence of a more detailed assessment of the desirability of the reforms and their effect on injured parties, it would be premature to conclude that reform efforts that were successful in enhancing insurance market profitability should be judged a success from …

Arkansas's Revised Article 3: User Caution Advised!!, Sarah Howard Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Harm And Evil In Criminal Law: A Study In Legislative Deception?, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

What is the role of the occurrence of harm or evil in criminal law? What should it be? Answers to these questions commonly use the distinction between what is called an objective and a subjective view of criminality. To oversimplify, the objective view maintains that the occurrence of the harm or evil defined by the offense is highly relevant. The subjectivist view maintains that such harm or evil is irrelevant; only the actor's culpable state of mind regarding the occurrence of the harm or evil is important. The labels tend to overstate a rather subtle distinction. The objectivist or harmful …

Tort Liability For Asbestos Removal Costs, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

During the past twenty years, Congress and the general public have become increasingly aware of the health hazards caused by exposure to toxic substances. Consequently, Congress has enacted statutes, such as CERCLA, requiring parties who are responsible for toxic waste to clean up the toxic waste sites and to reduce the level of toxic chemicals in the environment. Asbestos is one toxic substance that government has targeted in particular. The federal government and many states have enacted laws requiring asbestos-containing materials to be segregated or removed from schools and public buildings.

Even when government regulations do not mandate specific abatement …

Individual And Institutional Responsibility: A Vision For Comparative Fault In Products Liability, Mary J. Davis

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Since the adoption of strict products liability over the last thirty years, two problems of scope have received the most attention: how to define product defectiveness to which the liability attaches, and how to limit the potentially limitless liability through defenses. Much like the industries of the nineteenth century, product liability defendants of the twentieth century turned to the plaintiff's conduct as a main line of defense. Blaming the victim has historically been a powerful tool for tort defendants to evade responsibility for their conduct. This Article proposes that the defenses based on victim fault that have evolved in our …

Obstacles To The Creation Of A Permanent War Crimes Tribunal, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Individual liability for war crimes is difficult to enforce and is unlikely to be accepted uniformly by states.

Individual criminal responsibility is the cornerstone of any international war crimes tribunal. Nuremberg Principle I provides that “[a]ny person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment.” Acts by heads of state or other government officials, even if committed in an official capacity, may not constitute an immunity defense to or mitigate criminality. These officials, therefore, could also be held responsible for offenses committed pursuant to their orders. Additionally, liability for criminal …

The Impact Of Environmental Liabilities On Privatization In Central And Eastern Europe: A Case Study Of Poland, Randall Thomas

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries are breaking up their centrally planned economies at a record pace by selling formerly state-owned industrial enterprises to private sector investors. Privatization is expected to create more profit-oriented and efficient industries, a predicate for sustained long term economic growth. This transformation from public to private ownership presents tremendous challenges to these new democracies as they struggle to create market economies and democratic institutions.

A Statistical Profile Of Pharmaceutical Industry Liability, 1976-1989, W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore, James Albright

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

There is little question that the imposition of constraints on awards and other pro-defendant changes in the liability regime will reduce liability costs. However, the patterns observed in the federal courts are quite pronounced, far beyond what even the most ardent proponent of liability reform may have expected. Recent research analyzing the specific effect of liability reforms on general liability insurance and medical malpractice insurance suggests that these measures did have a significant role in limiting liability costs. 18 Damage cap reforms appear to have been particularly influential. However, the effect on liability insurance costs is not as dramatic as …

Recovery For Economic Loss Following The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

The physical cleanup following one of the worst oil spills in history, that of the Exxon Valdez, is done. The legal cleanup, however, has barely begun. Over 100 law firms participating in over 200 suits in federal and state courts involving more than 30,000 claims are presently engaged in litigation. Fishermen, cannery workers, fishing lodges, tour boat operators, oil companies whose shipments were delayed, and even California motorists facing higher gasoline prices have filed claims against Exxon and its fellow defendants.

Most claimants face a formidable roadblock, the so-called Robins doctrine. Under Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co. v. Flint …