Law Commons^™

New Private Law Theory And Tort Law: A Comment, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This comment was prepared for the Harvard Law Review symposium on “The New Private Law,” as a response to Benjamin Zipursky’s principal paper on torts. I find Zipursky’s reliance on Cardozo’s Palsgraf opinion as a foundational source of tort theory troubling, for two reasons. First, Cardozo fails to offer a consistent theoretical framework for tort law in his opinions, many of which are difficult to reconcile with one another. Second, Palsgraf should be understood as an effort by Cardozo to provide greater predictability, within a special class of proximate cause cases, by reallocating decision-making power from juries to judges. It …

Preparatory Negligence, Robert H. Heidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Essay discusses the appropriate significance in tort law of a negligent attempt to perform an injurious activity when the evidence is insufficient to show the actual performance of the activity was negligent. The author calls such a negligent attempt uncoupled with sufficient evidence of negligent performance "preparatory negligence." An example would be driving a car when one is so inebriated that the decision to drive is negligent but those injured in a subsequent accident are unable to show the inebriated driver's actual driving was negligent. The author argues that preparatory negligence alone should never warrant tort liability. Rather, those …

What Does Tort Law Do? What Can It Do?, Scott Hershovitz

Articles

It’s not hard to describe what tort law does. As a first approximation, we might say that tort empowers those who suffer certain sorts of injuries or invasions to seek remedies from those who brought about those injuries or invasions. The challenge is to explain why tort does that, or to explain what tort is trying to do when it does that. After all, it is not obvious that we should have an institution specially concerned with the injuries and invasions that count as torts.

Virginia Should Abolish The Archaic Tort Defense Of Contributory Negligence And Adopt A Comparative Negligence Defense In Its Place, Peter Nash Swisher

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Academic Concerns"-Caring About Conversation In Canadian Common Law, Karen Crawley, Shauna Van Praagh

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Supreme Court of Canada, in its 2001 decision in Cooper v Hobart, refined the test in Canadian common law for establishing a duty of care in the tort of negligence. Although aware of the complexities and ongoing challenges of the "duty of care" concept, the Supreme Court openly labelled these concerns as "academic." This article confirms these concerns as "academic," but insists that this label underlines their centrality not only to an understanding of the tort of negligence but to the nature and form of common law reasoning. By pointing to errors in the Supreme Court of Canada's judgment-errors …

The Distorted Reality Of Civil Recourse Theory, Alan Calnan

Alan Calnan

In their recent article Torts as Wrongs, Professors John C.P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky offer their most complete and accessible explanation of the civil recourse theory (CRT) of tort law. A purely descriptive account, CRT holds that tort law is exclusively a scheme of private rights for the redress of legal wrongs and is not a pragmatic mechanism for imposing strict liability or implementing public policy. The present paper challenges this view by revealing critical errors in its perspective, methodology, and analysis. It shows that Goldberg and Zipursky do not objectively observe tort law and uncritically report what they …

One Hundred Years Of Harmful Error: The Historical Jurisprudence Of Medical Malpractice, Theodore Silver

Theodore Silver

In this Article, Professor Silver examines the origins of present-day malpractice law. He begins by noting that negligence and medical malpractice as the common law now knows them made their debut in the nineteenth century although their roots lie deep in the turf of trespass and assumpsit. He argues, however, that toward the turn of the century several episodes of linguistic laziness purported to produce a separation between negligence and medical malpractice so that the two fields are conventionally thought to rest on separate doctrinal foundations. According to Professor Silver, historically based scrutiny of medical malpractice and its ties to …

Legal Malpractice, Professional Discipline, And Representation Of The Indigent Defendant, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Action And Inaction In The Law Of Tort: Solving The Puzzle Of Nonfeasance And Misfeasance From The Fifteenth Through The Twentieth Centuries, Theodore Silver, Jean Elting Rowe

Theodore Silver

No abstract provided.

Wrongful Conviction Claims Under Section 1983, Martin A. Schwartz, Robert W. Pratt

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

The Bp Spill And The Meaning Of "Gross Negligence Or Willful Misconduct", Patrick H. Martin

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eliminating Proximate Cause As An Element Of The Prima Facie Case From Strict Products Liability, Peter Zablotsky

Peter Zablotsky

No abstract provided.

From A Whimper To A Bang: The Trend Toward Finding Occurrence Based Statutes Of Limitations Governing Negligent Misdiagnosis Of Diseases With Long Latency Periods Unconstitutional, Peter Zablotsky

Peter Zablotsky

No abstract provided.

The Appropriate Role Of Plaintiff Misuse In Products Liability Causes Of Action, Peter Zablotsky

Peter Zablotsky

No abstract provided.

Texas Elective Workers' Compensation: A Model Of Innovation?, Jason Ohana

William & Mary Business Law Review

Workers' Compensation is often described as a bargain between employers and employees. Employees give up the right to sue their employers in negligence for workplace injuries, and, in return, employers agree to pay predictable, statutorily mandated benefits to injured employees. Over time, this “bargain” became compulsory in every state but one. Texas is the only state in which employers and employees can decide whether or not to enter the workers' compensation bargain. This elective system has some fairly serious problems, and many have advocated its abandonment. This Note analyzes the system's history, compares the system to conventional compulsory systems, analyzes …

The Hidden Legacy Of Palsgraf: A Survey Of Modern Duty Law, W. Jonathan Cardi

W. Jonathan Cardi

The elements of the debate between Justices Cardozo and Andrews in Palsgraf are canonical: (1) What is the nature of duty—is it relational or act-centered?; (2) Is plaintiff-foreseeability a duty inquiry or an aspect of proximate cause?; (3) Is court or jury the proper arbiter of foreseeability? An exhaustive examination of the case law on these questions reveals a deep disconnect between what most of us learned in law school and what is playing out in modern courts. Close scrutiny of Palsgraf’s present-day incarnations also lends an invaluable birds-eye view of duty law, an area so rife with inconsistency and …

Compliance With Advance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives, Holly Lynch, Michele Mathes, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

Modern ethical and legal norms generally require that deference be accorded to patients' decisions regarding treatment, including decisions to refuse life-sustaining care, even when patients no longer have the capacity to communicate those decisions to their physicians. Advance directives were developed as a means by which a patient's autonomy regarding medical care might survive such incapacity. Unfortunately, preserving patient autonomy at the end of life has been no simple task. First, it has been difficult to persuade patients to prepare for incapacity by making their wishes known. Second, even when they have done so, there is a distinct possibility that …

Ethically Handling The Receipt Of Possibly Privileged Information., James M. Fischer

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Inadvertently sent e-mails that contain privileged information, material negligently included in a discovery response, or employer's documents taken by a whistle-blower all share a common theme-the materials were not intended to be disclosed to the opposing party. This Article makes two contentions. First, all unintended disclosures should be treated under a single standard that asks whether the privilege holder exercised reasonable care in maintaining the confidentiality of the materials. Second, with respect to the receiving lawyer's professional obligations, a lawyer who receives materials that may be privileged should be allowed to read the materials: (1) to determine whether the materials …

Copyright As Tort, Assaf Jacob, Avihay Dorfman

Avihay Dorfman

In these pages we seek to integrate two claims. First, we argue that, taken to their logical conclusions, the considerations that support a strict form of protection for tangible property rights do not call for a similar form of protection when applied to the case of copyright. More dramatically, these considerations demand, on pain of glaring inconsistency, a substantially weaker protection for copyright. In pursuing this claim, we show that the form of protecting property rights (including rights in tangibles) is, to an important extent, a feature of certain normal, though contingent, facts about the human world. Second, the normative …

Outsourcing Human Reproduction: Embryos & Surrogacy Services In The Cyberprocreation Era, J. Brad Reich, Dawn Swink

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Good Medicine/Bad Medicine And The Law Of Evidence: Is There A Role For Proof Of Character, Propensity, Or Prior Bad Conduct In Medical Negligence Litigation, Marc D. Ginsberg

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Minnesota Negligence Law And The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Liability For Physical And Emotional Harms, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this article is to provide a foundation for judges and lawyers, primarily in Minnesota, who are seeking to understand how the Third Restatement’s approach to negligence law fits with Minnesota negligence law. The first Part of the article examines the approach of the Third Restatement. Because decisions in other states applying the Third Restatement will be important for courts in Minnesota and elsewhere in deciding whether to apply the Third Restatement, the second Part examines early reports on the Third Restatement in Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Delaware.

Electronic Medical Records: A Prescription For Increased Medical Malpractice Liability?, Blake Carter

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The cost and quality of health care is and most likely will continue to be one of the most important issues that the United States faces in the coming decade. Although no powerful antidote exists to cure this industry of all of its ailments, one potential suggestion to treat some of the symptoms is the introduction of electronic medical records (EMRs).

Members of the medical community, patients, and even politicians all agree that EMRs offer promising opportunities to improve the overall quality of health care. However, lost in the discussion of these opportunities, is a consideration of the potential side …

Modal Retributivism: A Theory Of Sanctions For Attempts And Other Criminal Wrongs, Anthony M. Dillof

University of Richmond Law Review

Rather than building the case for modal retributivism from the ground up, this article takes the existing components of retributive thought and reassembles them into a sounder structure. The cogency of the argument against harm-based retributivism andthe appeal of modal retributivism will likely be strongest forthose who allow reason, as opposed to intuition, a leading role in resolving moral issues.

Prescription For Fairness: New Approach To Tort Liability Of Brand-Name And Generic Drug Manufacturers, Allen K. Rostron

Faculty Works

Over the past two decades, courts have consistently ruled that the manufacturer of a brand-name prescription drug cannot be liable for injuries suffered by those taking generic imitations of its product. This meant that a patient injured by a generic drug could have no remedy at all because in many instances the generic drug manufacturer would escape liability on the ground that it did not produce any information on which the patient’s doctor relied. It was a perplexing dilemma. The generic drug manufacturer made the product that the plaintiff received, the brand-name manufacturer produced all of the information the patient’s …

The Model Business Corporation Act And Corporate Governance: An Enabling Statute Moves Toward Normative Standards, John F. Olson, Aaron K. Briggs

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Curious Life Of In Loco Parentis At American Universities, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

In this article I trace the legal history, through court opinions, of in loco parentis (Latin for “in the place of the parent”) as applied to the relationship between American universities and their students. I demonstrate that until the 1960s, the in loco parentis doctrine allowed universities to exercise great discretion in developing the “character” of their students without respect to their students’ constitutional rights. The demise of this doctrine forced courts, and universities themselves, to redefine the relationship of universities with their students in important ways.

Recovery Of Interest On A Tax Underpayment Caused By A Tax Advisor 'S Negligence, Jacob L. Todres

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

When a tax advisor renders incorrect advice due to negligence and a plaintiff establishes all the requisite elements of a malpractice cause of action, the most frequently encountered direct damages consist of four elements: additional taxes caused by the negligence, interest on underpaid taxes, penalties, and corrective costs incurred in attempting to eliminate or mitigate all or some of the foregoing damages. This article will focus on the recoverability of interest incurred by a plaintiff on a tax underpayment caused by the tax advisor's negligence. Such interest payment is present in many, if not most, tax malpractice situations because …

Property Rules And Defensive Conduct In Tort Law Theory, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

What role does defensive conduct play in a utilitarian theory of tort law? Why are rational (as opposed to instinctive) defensive actions permitted by tort doctrine?

To address these questions I will build on the property and liability rules framework. I argue that defensive conduct plays an important role in establishing the justification for and understanding the function of property rules, such as trespass doctrine. I show that when defensive actions are taken into account, property rules are socially preferable to liability rules in low transaction cost settings, because they obviate costly defensive actions. I extend the framework to provide …

Most Claims Settle: Implications For Alternative Dispute Resolution From A Profile Of Medical-Malpractice Claims In Florida, Neil Vidmar, Mirya Holman, Paul Lee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.