Civil Law Commons^™

Bifurcation Of Civil Trials, John P. Rowley Iii, Richard G. Moore

University of Richmond Law Review

Despite its widespread and long-standing recognition as a valuable docket-control device, the bifurcation of issues in civil trials has generated considerable debate among legal scholars and judges. The state and federal courts both utilize bifurcation, andthe Supreme Court of Appeals in Virginia recognized the advantages of the procedural device as early as 1915. Nonetheless, authority for the bifurcation of issues in civil trials in Virginia has remained clouded. The Supreme Court of Virginia lifted at least some of the clouds when it decided Allstate Insurance Co. v. Wade, thereby rejecting the position taken in an amicus curiae brief filed …

Incentive Effect Of Liability Rules In The Presence Of Liability Insurance In The Maritime Law Context: An Economic Analysis, Muhammad Masum Billah

Dalhousie Law Journal

Incentive effect of liability law may be affected by the presence of liability insurance. Apparently when a party has liability insurance and does not have to pay directly from its own pocket, it will have less motivation to exercise proper care. This tendency of an insured is known as "moral hazard." There are many studies on the problem of "moral hazard" and on various mechanisms how to address it. Yet, there is a lack of academic discussion on comparative analysis between liability law and liability insurance in terms of their effect on creation of incentives; that is, whether liability law …

Pro Se Litigation: Best Practices From A Judge's Perspective, Hon. Beverly W. Snukals, Glen H. Sturtevant Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rewarding Outside Directors, Assaf Hamdani, Reinier Kraakman

Michigan Law Review

While they often rely on the threat of penalties to produce deterrence, legal systems rarely use the promise of rewards. In this Article, we consider the use of rewards to motivate director vigilance. Measures to enhance director liability are commonly perceived to be too costly. We, however demonstrate that properly designed reward regimes could match the behavioral incentives offered by negligence-based liability regimes but with significantly lower costs. We further argue that the market itself cannot implement such a regime in the form of equity compensation for directors. We conclude by providing preliminary sketches of two alternative reward regimes. While …

To Err Is Human, Keith A. Rowley

Michigan Law Review

There are many kinds of mistakes. One kind-a rational, well-intended act or decision resulting in unanticipated, negative consequences-was the focus of Allan Farnsworth's previous foray into the realm of legal angst. Another kind-an act or decision prompted by an inaccurate, incomplete, or uninformed mental state and resulting in unanticipated, negative consequences- is the subject of the present book. Like its predecessor, Alleviating Mistakes does not confine itself to contract law, Farnsworth's home turf; it explores criminal, tort, restitution, and other areas of substantive law as well. As such, it paints on too large a canvas to capture its entirety in …

Civil Aiding And Abetting Liability, Nathan I. Combs

Vanderbilt Law Review

Criminal liability for aiding and abetting constitutes an ancient doctrine of criminal law. Commentators describing English law at the beginning of the fourteenth century recognized that "the law of homicide is quite wide enough to comprise . . . those who have 'procured, counseled, commanded or abetted' the felony.. .for it is colloquially said that he sufficiently kills who advises." In 1909, Congress enacted a general aiding and abetting statute applicable to all federal criminal offenses.

Civil liability for aiding and abetting, however, represents a very underdeveloped theory within common law tort. Courts have stated, seemingly in jest, that precedents …

Conjunction And Aggregation, Saul Levmore

Michigan Law Review

This Article begins with the puzzle of why the law avoids the issue of conjunctive probability. Mathematically inclined observers might, for example, employ the "product rule," multiplying the probabilities associated with several events or requirements in order to assess a combined likelihood, but judges and lawyers seem otherwise inclined. Courts and statutes might be explicit about the manner in which multiple requirements should be combined, but they are not. Thus, it is often unclear whether a factfinder should assess if condition A was more likely than not to be present - and then go on to see whether condition B …

The Liability Of The Automobile And Motorcycle Manufacturers And Their Suppliers For Defective Products In The United States Compared To Germany, Daniel Karl Robyn

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis deals with the lability of automobile and motorcycle manufacturers, as well as their suppliers, in situations where a defective product causes a harmful event. Specifically, it compares the product liability laws of the Federal Republic of Germany to those of the United States of America. Before entering into the details of legal doctrine, the introductory note provides background information on the social and economic aspects of automobile use in those two countries. Next, Chapter I describes the liability regime governing claims against German motor vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers. Chapter II focuses on the comparable law in the …

Review Of: Making Decisions About Liability And Insurance (Colin Camerer & Howard Kunreuther Eds.), Joseph M. Carreiro Jr.

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Review of: Making Decisions about Liability and Insurance (Colin Camerer & Howard Kunreuther eds., Kluwer Academic Publishers 1993). Figures, index, notes, tables. ISBN 0-7923-9393-7 [139 pp. Cloth $89.95. 101 Phillip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell MA 02061.1

Due Process

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

New York's Real Property Tax Law: The More Changes That Are Made, The More Things Stay The Same, Ira M. Sockowitz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liability For Proceeding With Unfounded Litigation, John R. Jones, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The important issues for this Note are the meaning of "good ground" and the nature of the sanctions available in a given case.One can conceive of many ways in which a pleading could lack good ground. At one extreme, -the attorney might know that the facts alleged were untrue."' Alternatively, the facts alleged, though not positively known to be untrue, might be based solely on speculation--as when the plaintiff, unsure who assaulted him, picked a name from the telephone directory on a hunch and sued that person." Between these egregious cases and the case in which the allegations have good …

Judicial Creation Of Direct Actions Against Automobile Liability Insurers: Shingleton V. Bussey, Jason G. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Elizabeth R. Bussey commenced a negligence action in a Florida state trial court against Frances R.B. Shingleton for damages sustained in an automobile mishap. The accident itself was a rather ordinary rear-end collision. Out of the ordinary, however, was the fact that the plaintiff joined as a party defendant Shingleton's liability insurer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The trial judge, following the insurance policy's non-joinder provisions' and the weight of authority in Florida and elsewhere, granted Nationwide's motion that it be dismissed as a party defendant. Plaintiff appealed this order to the Florida District Court of Appeal on the theory that, …

Liability Of Parking Lot Operators For Car Thefts

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Torts - Obstruction Of A Civil Action - Coercion By A Medical Association To Preclude Availability Of Expert Testimony In A Medical Malpractice Action, William Y. Webb

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff approached nine physicians in an attempt to secure an expert witness for a medical malpractice action. All nine refused, allegedly as a result of threats by the county medical association to expel them and cause a cancellation of their malpractice liability insurance if they testified. The association's actions stemmed from a finding by its "malpractice committee" that the malpractice defendant had not been negligent. Plaintiff then brought this action against the association to recover compensatory and punitive damages for obstruction of a civil action. On appeal from an order granting a motion for nonsuit, held, affirmed. No cause …

The Use Of Criminal Law As A Standard Of Civil Responsibility In Indiana, Cleon H. Foust

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Family Responsibilty Under The American Poor Laws: Ii, Daniel R. Mandelker

Michigan Law Review

No substantive statutory provision fulfills the purpose for which it was enacted unless fair and efficient procedures are provided for its enforcement. Under the Elizabethan family responsibility law, enforcement was confined to the parish justices of the peace, who at that time exercised both administrative and judicial functions. The blending of administrative and judicial functions no longer being the rule in American local government, practically all of the American family responsibility statutes provide for some judicial procedure by which the support duty may be enforced. The basic issue with which the courts have been concerned in applying these statutory remedies …

Damage As Requisite To Rescission For Misrepresentation, Glenn A. Mccleary

Michigan Law Review

The decadence of equity during the nineteenth century has long been an accepted phenomenon. The attempt to make law coincide with morals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was followed in the nineteenth century by the gradual fixing of rules and a consequent stiffening of the legal systems, in which moral principles became lost in a mass of rules derived from such principles. What were once equitable doctrines tended to become mechanical rules. The former strength of equity has been weakened in the various jurisdictions, due in a large measure to the administration of law and equity by the same …

Are A Knowledge Of An Offer And Intent To Accept Essential To The Recovery Of A Reward Offered?, Hugh Evander Willis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.