Torts Commons^™

The First-Party Insurance Externality: An Economic Justification For Enterprise Liability, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

This Article explores the insurance and deterrence implications of important and long overlooked facts. Consumers are insured through first-party mechanisms against most of the risks of product accidents. However, first-party insurers rarely and imperfectly adjust premiums according to an individual consumer's decisions concerning exactly what products she will purchase, how many of those products she will purchase, and how carefully she will consume them. Such consumer decisions we refer to as "consumption choices. " This failure by first-party insurers to adjust premiums according to consumption choices gives rise to a first-party insurance externality. Based on this insight, this Article offers …

Federal Preemption Of Prescrption Drug Labeling: Antidote For Pharmaceutical Industry Overdosing On State Court Jury Decisions In Products Liability Cases, 22 J. Marshall L. Rev. 629 (1989), John F. Del Giorno

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Warranty Of Quality In Sale Of Goods Under The Perspective Of The American And French Law, Renaud Baguenault De Puchesse

LLM Theses and Essays

While the United States’ common law system is characterized by diversity due to each state having its own set of rules, in certain areas there are nationwide legislative attempts of unification and standardization. One such attempt is the adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code which governs the sale of goods law in the United States. The French civil law system generally differs greatly from the American system in that it is primarily based upon statutes and codes. However, the American Uniform Commercial Code and the French Civil Code provide tangible, comparable bases to assess similarities and differences between American and …

An Economic Analysis Of Liability For Aids-Contaminated Blood Products, George Ferrell

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this Comment is to develop an economic analysis of possible blood products liability rules in order to determine what the effects of such rules are on blood users and providers. To the extent that current liability rules fail to promote an efficient allocation of risks and resources, this Comment will propose changes designed to correct such deficiencies.

On The Propriety Of The Public Interest Requirement In The Washington Consumer Protection Act—Wash. Rev. Code § 19.86, Susan K. Storey

Seattle University Law Review

This Note discusses first, whether the judicially created public interest element of a private consumer protection case can be justified by the language of the Consumer Protection Act and, second, assuming some justification for the element can be found, whether the public interest test, as delineated in Anhold v. Daniels and Hangman Ridge Training Stables, Inc. v. Safeco Title Insurance Co. serves a purpose intended by the legislature.” This Note concludes that the public interest element is unnecessary because it hinders and often prevents consumer litigation of private damage actions under the Act. Moreover, the public interest element cannot be …

A Moderate And Restrained Federal Product Liability Bill: Targeting The Crisis Areas For Resolution, Aaron D. Twerski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this article I have tried to offer a rational, feasible, and politically acceptable solution to the present product liability crisis. To do this, I have first set out the problem. I explain in Part I how courts have created the crisis by formulating incomprehensible legal standards. In Part II, I examine the difficulties with assessing punitive damages against a defendant. In Part III, I discuss the conflict between the torts and workers' compensation systems. In Part IV, I reflect on the need to protect wholesalers and retailers from needless litigation. Part V suggests that a federal study on the …

Charting The Future Course For Corporate Management Of Health Risks, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

Corporations engage in technological activities of benefit to society, but thereby also create new health risks for workers, consumers, and communities. Government regulatory agencies deal with this chronic problem by conducting risk analyses and imposing various duties on private firms. Despite agency efforts and corporate compliance, health risks continue to arise and take their toll. To what extent will private firms voluntarily assume greater responsibility for preventing these health risks? This question is of increasing social importance, because the limitations of regulatory efforts are now obvious, whereas health risks are now being identified at what appears to be an increasing …

Action Accrual Date For Written Warranties To Repair: Date Of Delivery Or Date Of Failure To Repair?, Carey A. Dewitt

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that the statute of limitations for an action for breach of a repair warranty should begin to run not when the goods are delivered (on-delivery rule), but when the manufacturer has failed to repair the goods (failure-to-repair rule). Part I considers the current division of authority relating to the action accrual date (the date at which the limitations period begins) for repair warranties. It analyzes the issue of whether the repair warranty is a species of future performance warranty under section 2-725(2) and examines non-Code law on repair promises. Part II discusses the advantages and disadvantages of …

Product Liability And The Passage Of Time: The Imprisonment Of Corporate Rationality, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In theory, the product liability system should induce manufacturers to invest in product safety at the socially optimal level, i.e., the level at which the marginal cost of the investment equals the marginal cost of product-related accidents thereby avoided. In reality, however, this inducement may be weakened by countervailing incentives, causing manufacturers in marginal cases to forgo investment that would appear to be cost-effective. Professor Henderson argues that in these cases corporate rationality has been "imprisoned" by two "real-world" phenomena. First, a manufacturer may postpone product improvements lest they be viewed by potential claimants and juries as a confession of …

Strict Liability And Warranty In Consumer Protection: The Broader Protection Of The Ucc In Cases Involving Economic Loss, Used Goods, And Nondangerous Defective Goods

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Act Of Faith, Jerry J. Phillips

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Modern Products Liability Law by Rocjard A. Epstein

Tort Law: Expanding The Scope Of Recovery Without Loss Of Jury Control, David A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

This article will analyze the types of changes that are taking place by examining three expanding areas of tort law: liability for negligently inflicted mental distress, negligently inflicted pure pecuniary loss, and harm caused by defective products. This examination will demonstrate that the scope of liability can be increased in at least two ways. One is by formally expanding the scope of existing causes of action, e.g., relaxing arbitrary barriers to liability or expanding the type of damages which may be recovered. A second method is by relaxing judicial control over the jury. This relaxation of control can take place …

Should A "Process Defense" Be Recognized In Product Design Cases?, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Henderson, addressing the suggestion that the focus in product design liability cases should be on the process by which design decisions are made rather than on the reasonableness of a particular design, analyzes a proposal that manufacturers be able to present evidence of good process as a defense. Although he applauds the attempt to resolve the difficulties of deciding product design cases, he questions the soundness of the process approach. Specifically, he argues that a process defense would be unworkable because judges would be unable to tell good process from bad, and that the proposal does not address polycentricity--the …

Coping With The Time Dimension In Products Liability, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Products Liability, Whitmore Gray

Book Chapters

The choice of "product liability" as a topic for the Tenth International Congress of Comparative Law was most appropriate. At the present time the legal periodicals are full of articles on this topic, the courts (not only in the United States) are handling an increasing load of these cases, the First World Congress on Product Liability has been held (London, 1977), and unification and harmonization work is already well advanced.

At the time of the First International Comparative Law Congress in 1934 it would have been hard to predict the development of this area of the law out of the …

Buyer Liability Under Section 2(F) Of The Robinson-Patman Act, Douglas E. Ray

University of Richmond Law Review

Despite the fact that the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act amendments to the Clayton Act were enacted in an attempt to curb the ability of large businesses to coerce sellers of products into granting them discriminatory price advantages over smaller purchasers, only one section of the Act, section 2(f) which prohibits the knowing inducement or receipt of discriminatory prices, is aimed at buyers. The remainder of the Act is directed toward sellers. Liability under section 2(f) is generally derivative in nature, being based on a preliminary finding of seller liability under another section of the Act. Because of this derivative nature of …

Extending The Boundaries Of Strict Products Liability: Implications Of The Theory Of The Second Best, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Refining The Traditional Theories Of Recovery For Consumer Mental Anguish, Val John Christensen

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Products Liability--Functionally Imposed Strict Liability, David A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

Many manufacturers and insurance companies claim that a products liability crisis exists. This is evidenced by soaring products liability insurance rates. They express the fear that as insurance becomes unavailable or prohibitively expensive, useful products will be withheld from the market and some manufacturers may even be forced out of business. Such critics of the tort system are calling for modifications of the common law in order to give greater protection to manufacturers. A more drastic approach, vigorously championed by Professor Jeffrey O'Connell, calls for total or partial abolition of the tort system and substitution with various forms of no-fault …

Products Liability: Developments In The Rule Of Successor Liability For Product-Related Injuries, Mary Annette Horan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will briefly review the traditional principles of corporate law governing the assumption of liabilities in the acquisition of an ongoing business, and the doctrinal premises of strict products liability. Attention will then be critically directed to recent developments in case law in which the traditional rules have been modified to reflect the policy considerations of strict products liability. Finally, this article will discuss the possibility of legislative intervention in the development of new principles governing successor responsibility for products liability claims and propose that this problem is an appropriate subject for legislative rather than judicial action.

Products Liability--Applicability Of Comparative Negligence, David A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

Products liability and comparative negligence are two very rapidly developing fields of tort law. In recent years, the vast majority of courts have adopted strict liability for harm caused by defective products. At the same time, the doctrine of comparative negligence has changed almost overnight from a doctrine that had been accepted by only a handful of jurisdictions into what is now the majority approach in this country.

A Critique Of The Uniform Product Liability Law -- A Rush To Judgment, Aaron Twerski, A. S. Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Products Liability In Kentucky: The Doctrinal Dilemma, Kathleen F. Brickey

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Design Defect Litigation Revisited, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Computerized Medical Records And The Right To Privacy: The Emerging Federal Response, Barry B. Boyer

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Automobile Crashworthiness: Evans Takes A Backseat, Frederick T. Haase Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Technological Expert In Products Liability Litigation, Aaron Twerski, William A. Donaher, Henry R. Piehler, Alvin S. Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Old Wine In A New Flask -- Restructuring Assumption Of Risk In The Product Liability Era, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Codling To Bolm To Velez: Triptych Of Confusion, Aaron Twerski

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Consumer Involvement And The Consumer Product Safety Act, Joseph A. Page

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The notion that consumers should actively participate in the administration and enforcement of a federal statute designed to protect them from unreasonable risks of harm is a distinguishing feature of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). History suggests that when Congress entrusts to a federal agency authority to intrude into the market place on behalf of the general public (or a segment thereof), in a matter of time the agency becomes overly responsive to, or even captive of, the corporate interests subject to regulation. The absence of public-interest pressures- a very raison d'etre for the setting up of the regulatory …