Torts Commons^™

The Role Of Fault In § 1983 Municipal Liability, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

Under Monell v. Department of Social Services, local governments are not vicariously liable for constitutional violations committed by their employees. Those governments, however, are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations committed by "policymaking" officials. In the face of these two principles, courts have struggled with cases in which an underling commits a constitutional violation and the claim of municipal liability is based on a policymaker's failure to prevent it. The government can be liable in these "indirect-effect" cases for a policymaker's "deliberate indifference" to safeguarding constitutional rights, a standard that demands an even greater showing of culpability than …

Space, The Final Frontier For Negligence Suits—Why Commercial Space Operators Should Be Liable For Personal Injuries To Space Flight Participants, Andrea Reed

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

The commercial space transportation industry is rapidly approaching the first launches of paying passengers into space—a technological and legal milestone for the maturing sector. Unfortunately, the liability regime governing the relationship between commercial space operators and spaceflight participants inadequately protects private passengers’ safety and financial interests. As part of the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 (CSLCA), Congress enacted negligence waiver and informed consent requirements that shift almost all legal liability onto spaceflight participants for death or bodily injury caused by an operator’s negligence. Private citizens should not bear the risk of these accidents.

This Comment argues that Congress …

Crashworthy Code, Bryan H. Choi

Publications

Code crashes. Yet for decades, software failures have escaped scrutiny for tort liability. Those halcyon days are numbered: self-driving cars, delivery drones, networked medical devices, and other cyber-physical systems have rekindled interest in understanding how tort law will apply when software errors lead to loss of life or limb.

Even after all this time, however, no consensus has emerged. Many feel strongly that victims should not bear financial responsibility for decisions that are entirely automated, while others fear that cyber-physical manufacturers must be shielded from crushing legal costs if we want such companies to exist at all. Some insist the …

Dust In The Wind: Revisiting Georgia’S Refusal To Extend Liability To Employers In Take-Home Asbestos Litigation, Phillips Workman

Georgia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Less Really More? Abraham And Kendrick On Getting Rid Of Affirmative Duties, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

No abstract provided.

Abolishing The Suicide Rule, Alex B. Long

Northwestern University Law Review

Suicide is increasingly recognized as a public health issue. There are over 40,000 suicides a year in the U.S., making suicide the tenth-leading cause of death in the country. But societal attitudes on the subject remain decidedly mixed. Suicide is often closely linked to mental illness, a condition that continues to involve stigma and often triggers irrational fears and misunderstanding. For many, suicide remains an immoral act that flies in the face of strongly held religious principles. In some ways, tort law’s treatment of suicide mirrors the conflicting societal views regarding suicide. Tort law has long been reluctant to permit …

Intellectual Property Harms: A Paradigm For The Twenty-First Century, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This short essay is part of a larger book project that investigates how contemporary intellectual property debates, especially in the digital age, are taking place over less familiar terrain: fundamental rights and values. Its argument draws from the diverse, personal accounts of interviews from everyday creators and innovators and focuses on descriptions of harms and, as some say “abuses,” they suffer within their practicing communities. The harms are not described are the usual harms that intellectual property law is understood to prevent. Typically, intellectual property injuries are conceived in individual terms and as economic injuries. An infringer is a thief. …

Torts Without Names, New Torts, And The Future Of Liability For Intangible Harm, Kenneth S. Abraham, G. Edward White

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Still “Snowing” In The Sunshine State: An Analysis Of And Potential Solutions To The Lack Of Protection From Employer Retaliation For Florida Lawyers Who Adhere To The State’S Mandatory Reporting Of Professional Misconduct Rule, Jason A. Anon

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Out Of The Freezer And Into The Policy Fire: Quandaries In Reproductive Cryopreservation, Rebecca Feinberg

Scholarly Works

The field of assisted reproduction is advancing rapidly and is ripe for regulation and guidance. In 2018, over four thousand frozen eggs and embryos were lost to approximately one thousand patients at Ahuja University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, due to an accidental thaw of a cryopreservation tank. The precedent that will be set by the Ahuja class-action case is significant for both past events and future possibilities and is core to the discussion of policy involving the cryopreservation of gametes and embryos.

Are Wide Streets Negligent?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

American commercial streets are typically designed to encourage rapid automobile traffic, thus making streets unsafe for pedestrians. In the 2016 case of Turturro v. City of New York, the New York Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict against a city for failing to slow down such traffic. This article describes Turturro, but shows how limited its holding was: the Turturro court emphasized a city's failure to study traffic calming, so if a city studies its options adequately it can avoid liability even if its policies are unsuccessful.

Extinguishing The Firewall: Addressing The Jurisdictional Challenges To Bringing The Cyber Tort Suits Against Foreign Sovereigns, Samantha N. Sergent

Vanderbilt Law Review

The rapid advancement of technology has resulted in new forms of tortious activity. Increasingly, these cyber torts are perpetrated by foreign states. Notwithstanding other barriers to collecting damages for a cyber tort, a plaintiff suing for a foreign-state-perpetrated cyber tort must prove that the alleged tortious activity satisfies one of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's exceptions-most likely the noncommercial tort exception. Recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that a U.S. court lacked jurisdiction to hear a claim against a foreign state that hacked a U.S. national's email account. The court found the noncommercial tort exception …

Drone Invasion: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles And The Right To Privacy, Rebecca L. Scharf

Scholarly Works

Since the birth of the concept of a legally-recognized right to privacy in Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis’ influential 1890 law review article, The Right to Privacy, common law – with the aid of influential scholars -- has massaged the concept of privacy torts into actionable claims. But now, one of the most innovative technological advancements in recent years, the unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, has created difficult challenges for plaintiffs and courts navigating common law privacy tort claims.

This Article explores the challenges of prosecution of the specific privacy tort of intrusion into seclusion involving non-governmental use …

Broken Bodies And Broken Dreams: How Social Safety Net Programs Subsidize Professional Boxing And The Need To Improve Legal And Health Protections For Prizefighters, Robert I. Correales

Scholarly Works

This article explores the lack of basic health and insurance protections for professional boxing participants and proposes changes in policy that will reflect the dangerous nature of professional boxing and the modem cost of medical services. Recognizing that a legislative remedy may never arrive, this article also examines previously unexplored or underutilized legal doctrines such as tort and workers' compensation law that may provide an alternative to inadequate insurance protection, and suggests a more aggressive approach along those lines to compel fuller protection for prizefighters.

Capanna, M.D. V. Orth, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 108 (Dec. 27, 2018) (En Banc), Pengxiang Tian

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that Orth’s counsel violated the golden rule arguments, but opposing party’s substantial rights were not violated. Moreover, the district court’s ruling regarding plaintiff expert’s potential biases did not impose severe limitations on Capanna’s ability to fully cross-examine plaintiff’s expert. Further, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it allowed Orth to supplement expert witness list and the award of attorney fees and costs was within the discretion of the district court. Lastly, Orth lacks standing in challenging the district court’s decision.

Branch Banking & Tr. Co. V. Gerrard, Esq., 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 106 (Dec. 27, 2018), Katrina Brandhagen

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.

Re-Evaluating The Demise Of The Average, Ordinary, Reasonable Person: Unintended Consequences In The Law Of Nuisance, George P. Smith & William P. Lane

Catholic University Law Review

This Article advocates for a wider pleading use of the tort of nuisance—this, because of the unresolved complexities in the doctrine of causation which continue to plague an effective use of negligence. The confusing awkwardness or, perhaps, the actual demise, of the notion of an average, ordinary, reasonable person so essential to improving negligent wrongdoing has caused aggravation over the years and, indeed, given rise to a state of torbidity.

The judiciary can more easily resolve this evidentiary quagmire by shifting its judicial attention and analysis to the tort of nuisance. With alarming social indicators and statistical projections, confirming the …

Privacy's Double Standards: Public Disclosure Tort Case Chart (2006-2016), Scott Skinner-Thompson

Research Data

This document, Privacy's Double Standards: Public Disclosure Tort Case Chart (2006-2016), 93 Wash. L. Rev. Online 2051 (2018), https://www.law.uw.edu/wlr/online-edition/scott-skinner-thompson, was published as an electronic supplement to the empirical study, Scott Skinner-Thompson, Privacy’s Double Standards, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 2051 (2018), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/1218/.

Privacy's Double Standards, Scott Skinner-Thompson

Washington Law Review

Where the right to privacy exists, it should be available to all people. If not universally available, then privacy rights should be particularly accessible to marginalized individuals who are subject to greater surveillance and are less able to absorb the social costs of privacy violations. But in practice, there is evidence that people of privilege tend to fare better when they bring privacy tort claims than do non-privileged individuals. This disparity occurs despite doctrine suggesting that those who occupy prominent and public social positions are entitled to diminished privacy tort protections. This Article unearths disparate outcomes in public disclosure tort …

The Unconstitutionality Of The Protecting Access To Care Act Of 2017’S Cap On Noneconomic Damages In Medical Malpractice Cases, Kaeleigh P. Christie

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.