Legal Remedies Commons^™

Survivability Of Noneconomic Damages For Tortious Death In Washington, Steve Andrews

Seattle University Law Review

The focus of this Comment will be the 1993 amendment to Washington's general survival statute. In particular, the goal is to interpret how noneconomic damages for tortious death are to be treated under the new survival statute and to answer the question of what noneconomic damages are available to the victim's survivors. Because of Washington's complex statutory scheme, each of five potentially applicable statutes will be examined for available noneconomic damages, the survivability of these damages, the beneficiaries of the action, and possible duplication of damages. In answering these questions, this comment will also address the issue of survivability of …

Taking The Mass Out Of Mass Torts: Reflections Of A Dalkon Shield Arbitrator On Alternative Dispute Resolution, Judging, Neutrality, Gender, And Process, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Life in the modem and post-modem world has changed our understanding of many traditional legal matters. Although many died from plagues, wars, and some shipping and agricultural accidents in the years which preceded the Industrial Revolution and modem breakthroughs in medicine, the twentieth century has given rise to "group" injury and death -it unprecedented levels, all as we march toward growth, progress, and greater goods for greater numbers. Mass progress has resulted in mass injury, which in turn has transformed individualized justice into mass justice. Whether structured as large class actions or as thousands of individual cases dealing with the …

Transcript Of The Florida Tobacco Litigation Symposium - Fact, Law, Policy And Significance, Jeffrey W. Stempel, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

On November 17, 1997, Professors Jeffrey W. Stempel and Jean R. Sternlight joined a group of colleagues specializing in litigation at the Florida State University College of Law Review's Symposium on the tobacco litigation settlement reached between the State of Florida and five leading tobacco manufacturers that same year. The professors appeared on a panel to discuss the the relationship among the legal system, public health concerns, and tobacco. This is a transcript of those preceedings.

On Dorfman’S ‘Death And The Maiden’, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay was originally prepared for a panel on transitional justice entitled "Justice, Amnesty, and Truth-Telling: Options for Societies in Transition," American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, convention (Atlanta, Dec. 1996).

Can a society be repaired unless its killers, rapists, and torturers are named and exposed? Can it be repaired if its killers, rapists, and torturers are named and exposed? That is the overarching question of transitional justice; it may even be the overarching question of life in human society. Just as no relationship can survive in the complete absence of truth, no relationship can survive in the complete absence of …

Design Defects Under The Proposed Section 2(B) Of The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability- A Judge's View, William A. Dreier

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The proposed section 2(b) of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability has caused a great deal of controversy, and many are concerned that this section represents a radical change in the law. This Article explains that section 2(b) in fact provides a pragmatic, workable tool for judges and attorneys to explain and prove a manufacturer's liability for a defective product. It sheds much of the baggage of the Restatement (Second) of Torts section 402A and its commentaries, yet preserves the essence of the theory behind section 402A. The criticisms of the new language are adequately met in the comments, …

Constructing A Roof Before The Foundation Is Prepared: The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability, Section 2(B) Design Defect, Frank J. Vandall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability section 2(b) is a wish list from manufacturing America. It returns products liability law to something more restrictive than negligence. What is new from the Reporters is that their proposal is written on a clean sheet of paper. Messy and awkward concepts such as precedent, policy, and case accuracy have been brushed aside for the purpose of tort reform. There has been almost no attempt to evaluate strict liability precedent or the policies underlying previous cases and the Restatement (Second) section 402A. Section 2b (the roof) has been drafted with little consideration of …

Liability Of Suppliers Of Natural Raw Materials And The Restatement (Third) Of Torts: Products Liability- A First Step Toward Sound Public Policy, M. Stuart Madden

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

From its inception, the law governing liability for damage or injuries caused by defective products has pertained to potential liability for products that have been processed, finished, or fabricated. Naturally occurring raw materials, for the most part, have been considered beyond doctrinal concern, largely because characterizing a merchantable raw material, such as copper or pigiron, as defective is conceptually difficult. Nevertheless, certain doctrines that developed for the application of products liability to other products have gained sporadic application to naturally occurring raw materials, including the sophisticated purchaser defense, the bulk supplier defense, and the ingredient supplier defense. Madden argues that …

Restating The Law: The Dilemmas Of Products Liability, Robert L. Rabin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Tracing products liability law from its origins to present day developments, Professor Rabin discusses the long-standing presence of interwoven strands of contract and tort ideology, as well as the perennial tensions between strict liability and negligence. These themes are evident both in the distinctly influential California case law and in the two Restatement efforts to systematize the doctrine that has emerged nationally. Rabin identifies the manner in which foundational ideological precepts of consumer expectations and enterprise liability have contributed to a continuously dynamic, if often unsettled, debate over the appropriate regime for resolving product injury claims.

Regulatory Standards And Products Liability: Striking The Right Balance Between The Two, Teresa Moran Schwartz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Common law courts have a long tradition of borrowing legislative and regulatory standards to define standards of care under the tort system. Treating such standards as setting minimum levels of care and safety under tort law, the courts uniformly have ruled that violations of standards constitute negligence per se, while compliance is merely evidence of negligence. Although critics of the tort system have urged legislatures and courts to adopt rules giving greater weight to regulatory compliance in products liability cases, the drafters of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability have declined to do so. They have adopted instead an …

Ioltas Unmasked: Legal Aid Programs' Funding Results In Taking Of Clients' Property, Kevin H. Douglas

Vanderbilt Law Review

States have implemented Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account programs ('IOLTAs")' to generate revenue for legal aid. IOLTAs raise money through the creation of an economy of scale by directing attorneys to place clients' trust funds that could not profitably draw interest in individual checking accounts into an unsegregated interest- bearing bank account ("IOLTA account"). By significantly reducing the expense that results from opening and maintaining separate accounts for individual clients, the IOLTA account profitably draws interest when individual client accounts could not. The interest generated from the IOLTA account is used to fund legal aid programs according to the specifications …

Liability For Uncertainty: Making Evidential Damage Actionable, Ariel Porat, Alex Stein

Cardozo Law Review

Because factual uncertainty distorts the allocation of civil liability, this Article argues that the law should impose liability for uncertainty. Justified on both corrective justice and economic efficiency grounds, this liability should be imposed upon any person who negligently aggravates the uncertainty of a civil case by making its evidential base deficient. Because "evidence" belongs to the world of inferences rather than things, evidential damage may be inflicted in a variety of ways, far beyond destruction of documents and other physical tampering with evidence. Through adoption and refinement of this insight, the Article diagnoses the presence of evidential damage …

When Is A Mortgage Guarantee Not Worth The Price Of A Notary? - The Incongruent Judicial Application Of New York’S Deficiency Judgment Statute, Benjamin Gruberg

Cardozo Law Review

Collateral for a mortgage is usually real property which, in the event that the mortgagor (borrower) defaults, is often sold by the mortgagee (lender) in a foreclosure sale. When the collateral consists of multiple parcels of real property and sale of the first parcel fails to realize the full amount of the outstanding debt, a deficiency results. The mortgagee next expects to sell the remaining properties in an attempt to secure full payment of this deficiency.

The Predictability Of Punitive Damages, Theodore Eisenberg, John Goerdt, Brian Ostrom, David Rottman, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Using one year of jury trial outcomes from 45 of the nation's most populous counties, this article shows a strong and statistically significant correlation between compensatory and punitive damages. These findings are replicated in 25 years of punitive damages awards from Cook County, Illinois, and California. In addition, we find no evidence that punitive damages awards are more likely when individuals sue businesses than when individuals sue individuals. With respect to award frequency, juries rarely award punitive damages and appear to be especially reluctant to do so in the areas of law that have captured the most attention, products liability …

The Cathedral At Twenty-Five: Citations And Impressions, James E. Krier, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It was twenty-five years ago that Guido Calabresi and Douglas Melamed published their article on property rules, liability rules, and inalienability. Calabresi, then a law professor, later a dean, is now a federal judge. Melamed, formerly a student of Calabresi's, is now a seasoned Washington attorney. Their article—which, thanks to its subtitle, we shall call The Cathedral—has had a remarkable influence on our own thinking, as we tried to show in a recent paper.

This is not the place to rehash what we said then, but a summary might be in order. First, we demonstrated that the conventional wisdom …

Property Rules As Remedies, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Implied Cause Of Action Under The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Christopher L. Sagers

Michigan Law Review

John and Janet lived for most of their early years together in a townhouse in Manhattan. It was a rental, a two-story walk-up on the Upper West Side with barely enough room for the two of them, and it ate up most of their income so that they were barely able to save anything. "Wait a minute," John said one day, "we're paying almost as much for this dump as we'd pay for a mortgage on a nice house!" So the two of them looked over their finances. Not much there. A few thousand and a 401(k) at Janet's work. …

The Unwelcome Judicial Obligation To Respect Politics In Racial Gerrymandering Remedies, Jeffrey L. Fisher

Michigan Law Review

Like it or not, the attack on "bizarrely" shaped majority-minority electoral districts is now firmly underway. Nearly four years have passed since the Supreme Court first announced in Shaw v. Reno that a state's redistricting plan that is "so extremely irregular on its face that it rationally can be viewed only as an effort to segregate the races for purposes of voting" may violate the Equal Protection Clause. Such a district, the Court held, reinforces racial stereotypes, carries us further from the goal of a political system in which race no longer matters, and "threatens to undermine our system of …

The Underrepresentation Of Minorities In The Legal Profession: A Critical Race Theorist's Perspective, Alex M. Johnson Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Over the last four years, I have taught a course in Critical Race Theory at the University of Virginia School of Law three times. Although each course is different, given the interplay between the teacher and the students and the integration of new developments into the course, there has been one constant subject that the students and I address: Of what import is the development of Critical Race Theory for the legal profession and larger society? Can Critical Race Theory have a positive or any effect for those outside legal academia? This article represents an attempt to explore that question …

In Re The Exxon Valdez: The Danger Of Deception In A Novel Mary Carter Agreement, Amy Edwards Wood

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the legality and ethics of the secret agreement between Exxon and the Seattle Seven by analogy to a similar type of collusive agreement called a "Mary Carter" agreement. Part I of this Note looks at the terms of the Exxon/Seattle Seven agreements. Part II examines Judge Holland's controversial decision with respect to the Exxon/Seattle Seven agreements. Part III describes the nature of a Mary Carter agreement and the factors used to determine whether such an agreement exists. Then Part IV argues that, like Mary Carter agreements, the Exxon/Seattle Seven agreements undercut the jury system, prolong litigation, contravene …

What Kulch Accomplished; What Kulch Left Out, Sandra J. Kerber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

An analysis of the rights of terminated whistleblowers in Ohio, as mandated by section 4113.52 of the Ohio Revised Code and interpreted by Kulch v. Structural Fibers, Inc., 677 N.E.2d 308 (Ohio 1997).

Why Civil Cases Go To Trial: Strategic Bargaining And The Desire For Vindication, Samuel R. Gross, Kent D. Syverud

Articles

When negotiations break down and a dispute cannot be settled, attorneys commonly blame their adversaries, often questioning their ethics or their judgment. After interviewing many attorneys, we have come to believe much of the criticism is directed at strategic moves in negotiation. But strategic ploys are not the only reason dispute resolution fails. Rather, our research also suggest that a genuine desire for vindication through trial or other formal process may be very significant in some types of cases where bargaining breaks down.

Going To Trial: A Rare Throw Of The Die, Samuel R. Gross, Kent D. Syverud

Articles

If it is true, as we often hear, that we are one of the most litigious societies on earth, it is because of our propensity to sue, not our affinity for trials. Of the hundreds of thousands of civil lawsuits that are filed each year in America, the great majority are settled; of those that are not settled, most are ultimately dismissed by the plaintiffs or by the courts; only a few percent are tried to a jury or a judge. This is no accident. We prefer settlements and have designed a system of civil justice that embodies and expresses …

Dealing With Evidentiary Deficiency, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

Lack of information distorts litigation. Claims or defenses that a party might prove easily, or that might even be undisputed, in a world of perfect information can be difficult or impossible to prove in the real world of imperfect information. Some information deficiencies are inevitable, at least in the sense that we could not eliminate them without incurring undue social costs. In some cases, however, a person's conduct may have caused the deficiency. More generally, the person may have had available a reasonable alternative course of conduct that would have eliminated, or at least mitigated, the deficiency. Ariel Porat and …

Emphasizing The Constitutional In Constitutional Torts (Symposium On Section 1983), Christina B. Whitman

Articles

It has been surprisingly difficult to extricate constitutional litigation from torts. In this Article I would like to resist once more' the idea that tort doctrines and tort categories provide a useful model for constitutional decision-making. When it comes to deciding the merits of a constitutional claim, torts is a distraction. That is the case whether torts serves as a positive model for the constitutional cause of action or as an alternative to be shunned. As part of this argument, I also question the claim2 that Monroe v. Pape,3 the 1961 case that opened the door for damages relief under …

Psychology, Economics, And Settlement: A New Look At The Role Of The Lawyer, Chris Guthrie, Russell Korobkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Law and economics models of litigation settlement, based on the behavioral assumptions of rational choice theory, ignore the many psychological reasons that settlement negotiations can fail, yet they accurately predict that vast majority of lawsuits will settle short of formal adjudication. What explains this? We present experimental data that suggests lawyers might evaluate the settlement vs. adjudication decision from a perspective more closely akin to "rational choice theory" than will non-lawyers and, consequently, increase the observed level of settlement. We then evaluate whether the hypothesized difference between lawyers and non-lawyers is likely to lead to more efficient dispute resolution, concluding …

Oppression Of Minority Shareholders In Close Corporations: The Dissolution And Buy Out Remedies, Alexis Wochenmarkt

LLM Theses and Essays

To understand the potentially dramatic consequences of oppression in a close corporation it is in the first instance necessary, to outline the specific characteristics of these corporations. This thesis concentrates on the peculiarities of close corporations. Most states enacted "oppression" as a generic ground for remedial action. This study evaluates the different standards emphasizing reasonable expectations. Reasonable expectations if properly limited appears to be an efficient tool to measure oppression. In other jurisdictions, mainly where oppression is not available as a ground for dissolution, courts encountered the needs of close corporations by enhancing the owed fiduciary duties. Thus, in some …

Congress's Amendment To Section 104 Of The Tax Code Will Not Clarify The Tax Treatment Of Damages And Will Lead To Arbitrary Distinctions, Sharon E. Stedman

Seattle University Law Review

This Note examines the recent amendment of I.R.C. § 104 and argues that the amendment will not clarify the tax treatment of damages but will instead lead to inequitable results and arbitrary distinctions. Part I explores the policy justifications for the exclusion of damage awards from gross income and provides a brief overview of section 104. Next, in Part II, the article reflects upon the tax treatment of damages prior to the recent amendment. In doing so, Part II focuses on the relevant case law and revenue rulings. Turning toward the tax treatment of damages under the new amendment, Part …

Game Theory And Nonrefundable Retainers: A Response To Professors Croson And Mnookin, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Articles

In the inaugural issue of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Professors David Croson and Robert Mnookin attempt a game-theoretic defense of the nonrefundable retainer. A nonrefundable retainer is an attorney fee arrangement that requires a client to pay her lawyer a specified dollar amount in advance and entitles the lawyer to keep the fee even if he does no work. For nearly a decade, we have argued that nonrefundable retainers are unethical as a matter of professional responsibility and unenforceable as a matter of law. In the last few years, numerous courts have evaluated the enforceability of these agreements, choosing …

Gender In The Law Of Slavery In The Antebellum United States, Andrew T. Fede

Cardozo Law Review

In her thought-provoking paper Finding Sojourner's Truth: Race, Gender, and the Institution of Property, Cheryl I. Harris explores the connections between slavery, race, and gender in the law of the antebellum United States. Harris acknowledges that slaves alone were defined as property at law, and, therefore,*the legal status of slaves differed from free white women and free black women. She also acknowledges that "white women" were allowed property rights on "male-defined terms" but asserts, nevertheless, that free women could be considered as a form of property.

Determining Ripeness Of Substantive Due Process Claims Brought By Landowners Against Local Governments, David S. Mendel

Michigan Law Review

Landowners who sustain economic harm from arbitrary and capricious applications of land use regulations may sue the local government entities responsible for applying those regulations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the local government entities deprived them of substantive due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. A landowner who brings this claim - an "as-applied arbitrary and capricious substantive due process" claim - may in appropriate cases seek declaratory and injunctive relief, damages, and attorney's fees. Despite controversy among courts and commentators over both the definition of property interests protected by the Due Process Clause and the standard …