Law Commons^™

Of Fine Lines, Blunt Instruments And Half-Truths: Business Acquisition Agreements And The Right To Lie, Jeffrey M. Lipshaw

ExpressO

In this article, I expand upon a happy coincidence (for scholars) in reconciling the overlap between contract and fraud. Both the recent book by Ian Ayres and Gregory Klass and the Delaware Court of Chancery in Abry Partners Acquisition V, L.P. v. F& W Acquisition, LLC addressed the issue of promissory fraud – the making of a contract as to which the promisor had no intention of performing. Each treatment, however, in focusing on fraudulent affirmative representations, falls short of (a) recognizing the fundamental aspect of deceptive promising in a complex deal, namely the half-truth, (b) articulating an appropriate doctrinal …

Summary Of Skender V. Brunsonbuilt Constr. & Dev. Co., 122 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 11, Chris Stein

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a district court judgment entered on a jury verdict in a constructional defect case and an order awarding interest, costs, and attorney fees.

New Differences Between Negligence And Strict Liability And Their Implications On Medical Malpractice Reform, Noam Sher

ExpressO

The present article seeks to explore previously undiscussed differences between the negligence and strict liability rules and thereby examine the required medical liability reform, if such reform is indeed required. Our main thesis is that negligence as a basis for liability entails a unique mechanism, which is essentially different than the strict liability mechanism, and is more efficient for several reasons, related to the legal function of resolving partial information problems which cause partial failure in the healthcare market. Among other things, the negligence mechanism (1) motivates the parties to a potential damages claim to invest in information gathering; (2) …

Product Liability, Franklin P. Brannen Jr., Richard L. Sizemore, Jacob E. Daly

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in Georgia product liability law. It covers noteworthy cases decided during the survey period by Georgia appellate courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and United States district courts located in Georgia. In addition, this Article discusses relevant legislative enactments by the Georgia General Assembly revising the Official Code of Georgia Annotated ("O.C.G.A.").

Torts, Deron R. Hicks

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Duty In Tort Law: An Economic Approach, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

Theories of tort law have focused on the breach and causation components of negligence, saying little if anything about duty. This paper provides a positive economic theory of duty doctrine. The theory that best explains duty doctrines in tort law is the same as the theory that explains strict liability doctrine. The core function of both sets of doctrines is to regulate the frequency or scale of activities that have substantial external effects. Strict liability aims to suppress or tax activities that carry unusually large external costs. Duty doctrines, especially those relieving actors of a duty of care, serve several …

Taxing Emotional Injury Recoveries: A Critical Analysis Of Murphy V. Internal Revenue Service, Gregory L. Germain

ExpressO

Does Congress have the power under the United States Constitution to tax compensatory personal injury awards? Several months ago, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said "no" in Murphy v. Internal Revenue Service. The court theorized that Ms. Murphy’s compensatory damages award did not constitute “income,” as understood by the enactors of the 16th Amendment, because the award merely made Ms. Murphy whole rather than increasing her wealth.

This paper disputes virtually every aspect of the Murphy decision. The court made errors from the beginning in analyzing the statutory issues. While the court ultimately reached the correct preliminary conclusion – …

Of Apples And Trees: Adoption And Informed Consent, Ellen Wertheimer

Working Paper Series

This article argues that the doctrine of informed consent should apply to the process of adopting a child. There is substantial evidence that all adopted children are at higher risk of learning disabilities and mental health problems than nonadopted children. The article first summarizes the social science evidence demonstrating these risks and discusses some of the reasons why more extensive studies have not yet been done. The article then turns to the law of informed consent as created and applied in the contexts of medicine and law, and concludes that informed consent doctrine should apply to the process of adoption. …

Reassessing Charitable Immunity In Virginia, Carl Tobias

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Hipaa's Effect On Informal Discovery In Products Liability And Personal Injury Cases, Daniel M. Roche

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accrual Of Causes Of Action In Virginia, James W. Ellerman

University of Richmond Law Review

This article will examine major issues in Virginia law affecting the accrual of causes of action, specifically in the contexts of contract, tort, and property. In addition to surveying the basic accrual requirements for each area of law, this article will look more deeply into several specific issues that guide an accrual analysis particularly the distinction between causes and rights of action, as well as the continuous treatment, discovery, and economic loss rules.

In Texas, Life Is Cheap, Frank Cross, Charles Silver

Vanderbilt Law Review

What is the life of a Texan worth? Some might suggest very little. Payments in thousands of tort cases in which Texans died provide some evidence for this hypothesis. Although Texas has been a focus of much of the national controversy over the costs of tort litigation, payments in death cases have seen relatively little disciplined research. Existing research often misses the primary effect of the system because it focuses on trial outcomes rather than settlement payments. This Article provides some evidence of the actual payments made in Texas in death cases, their determinants, and the implications of those findings …

The Problem Of Social Cost In A Genetically Modified Age, Paul J. Heald, James C. Smith

Scholarly Works

In Part I of this Article, we apply the Coase Theorem and its most useful corollary to the problem of pollen drift. We conclude that the liability of pollen polluters should be governed by balancing rules against nuisance law, to be applied on a case-by-case basis, rather than by a blanket liability or immunity rule. We also conclude that truly bystanding non-GMO farmers should have a viable defense to patent infringement because liability would result in the application of a reverse Pigovian tax that cannot be justified under accepted economic theory. Only a contextual approach can account for the wide …

Daubert And The Disappearing Jury Trial, Allan Kanner

ExpressO

Since being decided by the Supreme Court in 1993, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals has earned its place as one of the most misinterpreted and misapplied decisions in modern history. Meant to liberalize the standards for admissions of proof, the decision has had the opposite effect. The gatekeeper powers given to judges via Daubert, coupled with the internal and external incentives to prevent jury trials, has placed our entire civil justice system at risk.

Ley Federal Del Procedimiento Contencioso Administrativo., Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

Ponencia sobre la Ley Federal del Procedimiento Contencioso Administrativo, impartida por Bruno L. Costantini García.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Airline Liability For Loss, Damage Or Delay Of Passenger Baggage, M. R. Franks

ExpressO

The article discusses remedies and methods of enforcing airline liability for loss, damage or delay of passenger baggage. The article includes a discussion of the law as it relates both to domestic flights and to international flights where passenger luggage is lost, damaged or delayed. The article includes a discussion of the Warsaw Convention as it relates to international flights and of the Federal Aviation Regulations applicable in the case of domestic flights.

The Conditional Effects Of Ideology And Institutional Structure On Judicial Voting In State Supreme Courts, Jeff L. Yates, Paul Brace, Brent Boyea

ExpressO

Two enormously influential perspectives on courts offer fundamentally different predictions about court outcomes and the effects of judge ideology on those outcomes. Well-known to political scientists studying courts, the ideological voting (IV) literature argues that judge ideology is a strong predictor of court outcomes and that those outcomes should be proximate to the policy preferences of courts. Less known to political scientists but highly influential, the law and economics perspective (LE) focuses on settlement behavior of litigants who try to minimize costs and thus estimate likely outcomes in court, and settle simpler cases pre-trial. In this case selection process litigants …

Common Law Property Metaphors On The Internet: The Real Problem With The Doctrine Of Cybertrespass, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The doctrine of cybertrespass represents one of the most recent attempts by courts to apply concepts and principles from the real world to the virtual world of the Internet. A creation of state common law, the doctrine essentially involved extending the tort of trespass to chattels to the electronic world. Consequently, unauthorized electronic interferences are deemed trespassory intrusions and rendered actionable. The present paper aims to undertake a conceptual study of the evolution of the doctrine, examining the doctrinal modifications courts were required to make to mould the doctrine to meet the specificities of cyberspace. It then uses cybertrespass to …

Assumption Of Responsibility And Loss Of Bargain In Tort Law, Russell Brown

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author seeks to justify recovery in negligence law for loss of bargain, which is the pure economic loss incurred by a subsequent purchaser of a defective product or building structure in seeking to repair the defect. The difficulty is that the purchaser is not in a relationship of contractual privity with the manufacturer The conflicting approaches in Anglo-American tort law reveal confusion, owing to loss of bargain's dual implication of the law governing pure economic loss and products liability. These difficulties are overcome by drawing from Hedley Byrne's requirements of a defendant's assumption of responsibility and a plaintiff's reasonable …

Chasing The Illusory Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow: Negligence And Strict Liability In Design Defect Litigation, Aaron D. Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Morality And The Appeal Of Tort Reform, Martin A. Kotler

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Standardized Tests, Erroneous Scores, And Tort Liability, Vincent R. Johnson

ExpressO

Recently, there has been a vast expansion of standardized testing and of related scoring errors. For example, in October 2005, the College Board mis-scored 5,000 SAT exams. Most scores were too low by 50 to 100 points, but in some cases the deficiency was over 400 points. This is the first law review article to examine the issue of whether mis-scoring of standardized tests is actionable until traditional tort theories. The article assesses the viability of claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, defamation, false-light invasion of privacy, tortious interference, and injurious falsehood.

Hedonic Damages, Hedonic Adaptation, And Disability, Samuel R. Bagenstos, Margo Schlanger

ExpressO

This article contributes to the broad debate over “adaptive preferences” in law, economics, and political philosophy by addressing an important ongoing controversy in tort law. Hedonic damages compensate for the lost enjoyment of life that results from a tortious injury. Lawyers seeking hedonic damages in personal injury cases emphasize their clients’ new status as compromised and damaged persons, and courts frequently uphold jury verdicts awarding hedonic damages to individuals who experienced disabling injuries based on a view that disability necessarily limits one’s enjoyment of life. This view is consonant with a general societal understanding of disability as a tragedy and …

Persona Jurídica Como Tercero Civilmente Responsable, Una Infeliz O Feliz Vinculación Entre El Derecho Civil Y El Derecho Penal, Rómulo Morales

Rómulo Morales Hervias

La tesis de este estudio es la aplicabilidad de la responsabilidad civil a las personas jurídicas cuando ellas ocasionan daños a terceros mediante el ejercicio o con ocasión de las actividades de sus representantes orgánicos.

Theories Of Asbestos Litigation Cost - Why Two Decades Of Procedural Reform Have Failed To Reduce Claimants' Expenses, Jeffrey M. Davidson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Tort Reform On Medical Malpractice Payments, Ronen Avraham

ExpressO

This study evaluates the impact of six different types of tort reforms on the frequency, size and number of total annual settlements in medical malpractice cases between 1991 and 1998. Previous studies have failed to correctly identify the effective dates of reforms, to account for the retroactive applicability of striking down reforms, or used highly selected samples of jury verdicts or litigated cases. I employ a new legal data set of tort reforms, which carefully evaluates effective dates as well as when certain laws were overturned. Medical malpractice data comes from the National Practitioner Data Bank, which contains more than …

Successor Liability For Defective Products: A Redesign Ongoing, Richard L. Cupp

ExpressO

Successor products liability – cases where an injured plaintiff sues a successor business for a defective product sold by a predecessor business -- is a doctrine still under development in the courts, and the doctrine’s unsettled nature seems destined to continue over the next several years. Jurisdictions may be roughly divided into three categories. Several take a restrictive approach toward liability in such cases (sometimes called the “traditional approach”), allowing it only when relatively rare exceptions to a general no-liability rule apply. Several other jurisdictions are less restrictive with successor products liability, allowing recovery under the “product line” or “continuity …

Authorship, Audiences, And Anonymous Speech, Thomas F. Cotter

ExpressO

A series of United States Supreme Court decisions establishes that the First Amendment provides a qualified right to speak and publish anonymously, or under a pseudonym. But the Court has never clearly defined the scope of this right. As a result, lower courts have been left with little guidance when it comes to dealing both with the Internet-fueled growth of torts and crimes committed by anonymous speakers, and with the increasing number of lawsuits aimed at silencing legitimate anonymous speech. In this Article, we provide both positive and normative foundations for a comprehensive approach to anonymous speech. We first draw …

The Final Battle For Preemption: The Fda And Prescription Drug Labeling Product Liability Actions, Mary J. Davis

ExpressO

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has promulgated a new regulation which revises the format for prescription drug labeling, and, in the process, has taken the position that the regulation displaces, or preempts, state products liability laws that seek to assess liability on the manufacturer for a label’s warning adequacy. In the FDA’s 100 year history, it has not taken the position that federal prescription drug labeling regulations preempt common law tort claims until the last few years, beginning with Motus v. Pfizer in 2002. This position, radical to many and rational to others, places federal preemption of prescription drug …