Torts Commons^™

A Public Official May Be Granted Punitive Damages Without Seeking Or Recovering Actual Damages If The Statement Is Libelous Per Se., G. Franco Mondini

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Implied Causes Of Action: A New Analytical Framework, 14 J. Marshall L. Rev. 141 (1980), Robert L. Carter, James E. Cumberworth Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Time Of Discovery Rule And The Qualified Privilege Defense For Credit Reporting Agencies In Illinois After World Of Fashion V. Dun & (And) Bradstreet, Inc., 10 J. Marshall J. Of Prac. & Proc. 359 (1977), Paul Wangerin

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

How The Uniform Crime Victims Reparations Act Works, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Uniform Crime Victims Reparations Act, approved by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates, has been submitted to state legislatures. This timely act seeks recompense for the victims of crimes, but also incorporates numerous safeguards to prevent abuse.

The American Bar Association's House of Delegates, meeting in Houston on February 5, 1974, approved an idea whose time is rapidly approaching the Uniform Crime Victims Reparations Act. The act is the product of a committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws for which I served as consultant and reporter over its three years of deliberations. The …

Recovery For Wrongful Death In Virginia: The Effect Of "Dependency" And "Pecuniary Loss"

University of Richmond Law Review

In 1968, substantial changes occurred m the statute allowing recovery for wrongful death in Virginia. The General Assembly established "dependents" as a new class of persons, entitled to recover up to a maximum of $50,000 in proportion to their "pecuniary loss." The statute also designates a class of persons as beneficiaries and allows them to recover an additional $25,000 for solace. Thus, the total amount potentially available to persons who qualify as both a dependent and a statutory beneficiary is $75,000.

Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

If suicide is a deliberate, intentional act by an individual, how can one person be "civilly liable for causing the suicide of another"? The paradox suggested by this question has caused many courts to shy away from imposing civil liability for causing suicide.' In certain situations,however, a growing number of courts are permitting recovery. Since suicide is on the increase both in numerical terms and in rank as a cause of death in the United States it can be expected that even more tort claims will be brought by parties attempting to fix civil responsibility on someone other than their …

Imprisonment Of Indigent Defendants For Nonpayment Of Fines

University of Richmond Law Review

The use of fines as a criminal sanction has been a part of Anglo-American law for over six hundred years. From the inception of this penalty, however, law making bodies have had to deal with the convicted criminal who fails or refuses to pay the fine imposed upon him. The early non-paying offender faced being sold into slavery unless the necessary funds could be produced by family or friends. From such early remedies for default our present more civilized alternative of imprisonment arose.

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, …

Books Received

University of Richmond Law Review

These are the books received by the Law School in 1970.

Recent Decisions

University of Richmond Law Review

This is a summary of the case law from 1969.

Sec Enforcement Of The Rule I0b-5 Duty To Disclose Material Information-Remedies And The Texas Gulf Sulphur Case, Edmund B. Frost

Michigan Law Review

On April 16, 1964, the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company announced one of the most significant mineral discoveries of the twentieth century-a major copper and zinc deposit near Timmins, Ontario, found by means of geophysical exploration and exploratory drilling. Unusual market activity prior to this announcement prompted a Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation of insider stock transactions. In April 1965, the SEC brought suit against a group of Texas Gulf insiders, alleging that their purchase of stock on national exchanges before the disclosure of the information concerning the Timmins strike constituted a violation of section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act …

Products Liability Based Upon Violation Of Statutory Standards, Joseph H. Ballway Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Regulatory enactments controlling production and distribution can give rise in several different ways to civil liability on behalf of persons injured by non-conforming merchandise. For instance, if a statute codifies existing common-law rules of negligence, its effect is merely to place the weight of legislative authority behind ordinary negligence principles. Since an injured party's recovery under such a provision still depends largely upon his proving in the traditional manner that a defendant failed to exercise due care, this kind of statute merits no further discussion. On the other hand, if particular legislation expressly states that a violator may be subjected …

The Report Of The Osgoode Hall Study On Compensation For Victims Of Automobile Accidents, Allen M. Linden

Books

The Osgoode Hall Study was aimed at filling the factual lacuna which prevented an informed assessment of the Ontario system of compensating automobile accident victims. Those in charge of the study set out to collect and analyze statistical data which would illuminate the strength and weaknesses of the present system of loss distribution. A survey was designed which would discover the financial costs incurred by injured individuals and whether they were uncompensated, undercompensated or overcompensated for these costs. The project further aimed at describing the interrelation of the tort, private loss insurance and government reparation schemes, the role of lawyers …

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 …

Real Property - Water Rights - Liability For Discharge Of Surface Water, Robert E. Hammell

Michigan Law Review

In 1950 the corporate defendants purchased a forty acre tract of farm land lying north of plaintiffs' golf course and restaurant. Drainage from this tract had always flowed in a natural course southerly through plaintiffs' land. The defendant corporations constructed a subdivision of 169 homes on the tract. This change aggravated the discharge of surface water onto the land of the plaintiffs, increasing the run-off some 350 percent and, in times of heavy rains, producing flood conditions. Plaintiffs were awarded damages and an injunction by the trial court. On appeal, held, reversed. In respect to 30 acres of defendants' …

Subrogation, Indemnity, Contribution And Election Of Remedies Aspects Of The Tort Claims Act, Fred Blanton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dramatically altering the concept of sovereign responsibility in the field of injuries to person and property, the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 in action has progressed steadily by application and interpretation to emerge as one of the most, if not the most, important pieces of domestic legislation enacted during the past decade. This ascendency has transpired primarily because the overwhelming majority of courts have boldly taken a dynamic approach to the inevitable problems occurring and recurring in a day-to-day consideration of the multitude of factual permutations and combinations presented to them for analysis and decision under the Act. Generally …

Civil Procedure - Service Of Process Under Nonresident Motorist Statute - Effect Of Death Of Nonresident Defendant, Warren K. Urbom S.Ed..

Michigan Law Review

A wife sued for the wrongful death of her husband, which was allegedly caused by a nonresident defendant's negligent operation of his automobile on a Wisconsin highway while the plaintiff's husband was a passenger therein. Service of process was made on the Commissioner of the Motor Vehicle Department in Wisconsin, and copies of the summons and complaint were mailed to defendant in Illinois in accordance with the Wisconsin nonresident motorist statute. Shortly thereafter, before a judgment was rendered, defendant died. Plaintiff sought to revive the action against defendant's administrator by serving notice of the filing of a petition for revival …

A Rationale Of Negligence Per Se

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Federal Procedure-Change Of Venue-Applicability Of §1404(A) Of The Judicial Code Of 1948 To Cases Arising Under The Federal Employers' Liability Act And The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Thomas L. Waterbury S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court have resolved this problem. In the first case, plaintiff employee sued defendant employer for damages under the FELA. Taking advantage of the broad choice of venue given him, plaintiff sued in the Chicago district court which was some 400 miles from Irvine, Kentucky, the place of injury and residence of all the witnesses. Defendant moved for transfer to a Kentucky district court, ''For the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interest of justice. . . . " The motion was granted and plaintiff sought a writ of mandamus in the …

Negligence-Taking The Issue Of Negligence From The Jury In Public Utility Cases, Charles D. Bell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

After boarding a trolley owned and operated by defendant, plaintiff-dropped her return slip. Holding a package in one hand, she stooped to pick up the slip. Plaintiff testified that although defendant's operator saw her in this position, he started the trolley with a "very fast jerk" which threw plaintiff to the floor and caused certain injuries. At the conclusion of plaintiff's evidence, which consisted of her uncorroborated testimony, the trial court directed a verdict for defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed. Przborowski v. Baltimore Transit Co., (Md. 1948) 59 A. (2d) 687.

Objective Factors As Part Of The Circumstances In Cases Involving Civil Negligence, Helen C. Stephenson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is There A Negligent Civil Battery?, Helen C. Stephenson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Mental Defects, Less Than Insanity, On The Standard Of Care Required Of Defendants In Civil Negligence Cases, Robert M. Spragens

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Civil Assault--Intent And Negligence, William B. Buford

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of The Civil And Criminal Liability Of Infants, Mary Louise Barton

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …

The 'Source Of Law' In The Panama Canal Zone, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

A case just decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, coming to that court from the Canal Zone, shows the great difficulties under which our courts labor when they are called on to interpret and administer the law in our extra-continental possessions. The courts have apparently had the most difficulty in amalgamating the Roman law and the common law in cases involving questions of delictual liability. In the case of Fernandez v. Perez (1906), 202 U. S. 80, the procedural question was presented as to the validity of an action on the case for the wrongful levy of …

Pleading, Edson R. Sunderland

Book Chapters

Professor Sunderland's 780-page chapter on Pleadings: "Pleadings are statements, in logical and legal form, of causes of action and grounds of defense, terminating in a single proposition affirmed on one side and denied on the other. They are intended to form the foundation of the proof to be submitted on the trial, and should advise the parties to an action what the opposite party relies upon either as a cause of action or defense or objection as the case may be." Preceded by a 41-page outline.

Note And Comment, Harry B. Hutchins, Stephen W. Downey, Francis B. Keeney, Clyde A. Dewitt

Michigan Law Review

Suits Against Trustee; Bills and Notes--Nonnegotiable Notes--Liability of Indorser; Bonds--Joint Stock Association--Negotiability; Carriers--Free Transportation as a Penalty; Carriers--Waiver of Stipulations as to Suits; Constitutional Law--Due Process of Law--Indeterminate Sentence Law; Constitutional Law--Corporations--Foreign Corporations--Exclusion For Removal of Cause to Federal Courts; Constitutional Law--Powers of Constitutional Convention; Criminal Law--Capital Offense--Bail--When Granted; Criminal Law--Murder--Elements of Murder; Damages--Action by Husband for Loss of Wife's Services; Damages--Failure to Deliver Telegram--Mental Suffering--Near Relative; Deeds--Joinder of Infant Husband; Divorce--Temporary Alimony and Counsel Fees--Appeal--Decisions Reviewable; Equity--Sworn Answers as Evidence--Proof to Overcome; Evidence--Opinion Evidence in Action for Libel; Evidence--The Best Evidence Rule; Fraudulent Conveyances--Delivery and Change of Possession of …

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.