TortsProf Blog

Products Claim Against Boeing for "Fume Event" Sickness

CNN has the details here.

--CJR

Personal Injury Roundup No. 41 (7/03/09)

Happy Fourth of July!

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Point:  Richard Epstein on Medical Malpractice Reform (Olson/Point of Law)
• Counterpoint:  Eric Turkewitz Responds (New York Personal Injury Law Blog)  Alberto Bernabe has more here.

Trials, Settlement and Other Ends

• NE:  Inmate Kills Girlfriend and Blames Zoloft (Olson/Overlawyered)

Damages

• Wrist Fracture Verdicts and Settlements (Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog)

Appeals    

• NY:  Jury's Refusal to Award Damages for Future P&S is Reversed (New York Injury Cases Blog)
• GA:  Med Mal Defense Verdict Overturned; "Hindsight" Instruction was Inaccurate (Access North Georgia)
• CA:  Appeals Court Upholds Assumption of Risk in "Burning Man" Burns (Krauss/Point of Law)

Miscellaneous

• Krugman on Health Reform (HealthLawProf Blog)
• Nestle Cookie Dough E. Coli Update (The Pop Tort)
• Overlawyered, apparently the first legal blog, turns 10 years old.  Started by Walter Olson, it's a must-read blog, regardless of your views.  Sometimes I agree with the content, often I don't, but Walter is a class act.  If you don't believe me, listen to people who disagree with him more often than I do.  (Miller/The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog) (Turkewitz/New York Personal Injury Law Blog)

--CJR

Ross & Prince on Post-Sale Duties

Kenneth Ross (Adjunct Minnesota & Products Liability Prof Blog) and J. David Prince (William Mitchell & Products Liability Prof Blog), in a recent article in the Brooklyn Law Review, provide an overview of post-sale duties in the Restatement (Third) of Torts:  Products Liability.  A link to a Products Liability Prof post which, in turn, has a link to the article is here.

--CJR

Lay Perceptions of Strict Liability Standards in Mundane Cases

Matthew Kugler (Princeton-Psychology), John Darley (Princeton), Joseph Sanders (Houston), & Lawrence Solan (Brooklyn) have posted to SSRN Riding a Bicycle is Not an Abnormally Dangerous Activity:  Lay Perceptions and the Appearance of Strict Liability Standards in Mundane Cases.  Here is the abstract:

In four studies, participants assigned civil liability at moderate to high rates to injurers whose conduct was not negligent, holding them to a strict liability standard. The law would generally not assign liability in these cases, instead only imposing it when the actor was negligent or when the activities were “abnormally dangerous.” Participants are more likely to assign liability in the absence of negligence when the injurious activity takes place in an inappropriate location (study 1) or when it is abnormally dangerous in a lay sense (study 2). It also matters whether the injurer is engaged in a business activity and if the injured party poses a reciprocal risk to the injurer (study 3). But, even absent all of these special circumstances and even when both the injurer and injured parties were engaging in identical highly mundane behaviors, many respondents still believe that some liability should be assigned for non-negligent conduct. Participants in study 4 show willingness to assign liability in the absence of negligence even when the harm inflicted is purely economic or not to a private entity. In studies 3 and 4, participants report explanations consistent with a strict liability perspective.

--CJR

 

FDA Advisory Panel Recommends Ban on Percocet and Vicodin

An FDA Advisory Panel has recommended a ban on drugs that combine narcotics with acetaminophin (i.e., Tylenol or Excedrin).   As the New York Times reports:

High doses of acetaminophen are a leading cause of liver damage, and the panel noted that patients who take Percocet and Vicodin for long periods often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect.

Acetaminophen is combined with different narcotics in at least seven other prescription drugs, and all of these combination pills will be banned if the Food and Drug Administration heeds the advice of its experts.

- SBS

Scorned Husband Sues Wife's Alleged Lover

A new alienation-of-affection case from Jonathan Turley:

Wealthy car dealer Bob Rohrman (known as “Bob Rohrrrrrrr-man” on his commercials) is suing a surgeon, Dr. Sami M. Bittar, who wooed his wife, Ronda.  Of course, Rohrman must show that the couple had a loving and full relationship before Dr. Bittar made a house call and that the good doctor was the cause of the damage to the marriage.

Turley further notes some recent successful alienation cases and the resulting verdicts.

- SBS

The D.C. Metro Crash: Race to the Courthouse

John Bratt, an associate of Ron Miller, has a post at Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog.  For those of you who are just-the-facts types:  Train accident on 6/22 at 5:02 p.m.; first suit filed on 6/24.

--CJR

G.M. Keeps Liability for Unfiled Products Claims

As the New York Times reports, General Motors will retain liability for unfiled products liability claims as part of its bankruptcy.  Previously-filed claims, however, will be part of the bankruptcy.  A hearing on G.M.'s bankruptcy plan is scheduled for tomorrow in federal bankruptcy court in New York.  

- SBS

Cookie Dough Suits Filed

A California woman has filed suit against Nestle alleging that raw chocolate chip cookie dough gave her food poisoning, although no tests have confirmed any contamination in Nestle products and despite a clear warning on Nestle pre-packaged cookie dough not to eat the dough raw.  Nestle voluntarily recalled dozens of brands of cookie dough a few weeks ago.   About Lawsuits has more.

- SBS

Who Wants to Be a TortsProf?

I assure you it's fabulous!  Prawfsblawg has an open thread for hiring chairs.  At least three schools--Notre Dame, St. John's, and Lewis & Clark--have stated in interest in hiring for Torts.  The full list, including contact information, is here.

--CJR

Michigan Class Action Autism Settlement

As the National Law Journal reports, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has agreed to a $1M settlement to reimburse at least 100 families for the costs of applied behavioral analysis treatment for their autistic children.  

- SBS

Ted Frank's New Blog

Ted Frank of Overlawyered and Point of Law has launched a new blog:  

Center for Class Action Fairness, a project founded by Ted Frank to provide pro bono representation to consumers dissatisfied with court-appointed representatives in class actions, especially with respect to settlement approval.

- SBS

Reminder: Prosser Award Nominations Due Next Week (July 1st)

The Torts and Compensation Systems section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) is soliciting nominations for the William L. Prosser Award.  The award "recognize[s] outstanding contributions of law teachers in scholarship, teaching and service in ... torts and compensation systems ...."   The two most recent distinguished recipients are Robert Rabin and Dan Dobbs. Past recipients also include luminaries such as  Leon Green, Wex Malone,  and John Wade.

Any law professor is eligible to nominate another law professor for the award.  Selection of the recipient will be made by members of the Executive Committee of the Torts and Compensation Systems Section, based on the recommendation of a special selection committee.  The announcement of the award will be made at the annual AALS meeting in January, 2010.   

Nominations, accompanied by a brief supporting statement, should be submitted to Prof. Michael L. Rustad, Secretary of the Executive Committee, either by regular mail or e-mail  at profrustad@aol.com.  Nominations must be received no later than 5 pm eastern time (U.S.) on July 1, 2009.  E-mail submissions at profrustad@aol.com are preferred.   If you prefer to mail the nominations, please send them to the address below:

 

Michael L. Rustad
Thomas F. Lambert Jr. Professor of Law &
Co-Director of the Intellectual Property Law Concentration
Suffolk University Law School
120 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108-4977
Tel: 617-573-8190

 

- SBS

AALS Torts Section Announces Panel on Richard Epstein

 Announcement and Call for Papers

AALS Torts Group Section Meeting

January 8, 2010, 8:30 – 10:15 a.m.

 

Panel: Richard Epstein’s Legacy in Torts.

 

            Richard Epstein is among the most prominent and influential torts scholars of our times.  Unmatched in breadth, his scholarly corpus displays a remarkable command of doctrinal, historical, institutional and philosophical analysis. A fiercely independent thinker, Professor Epstein has challenged conventional wisdom on core topics including:  the centrality of fault to modern accident law; the reluctance of courts to allow potential personal injury victims to contract around tort law; the desirability of flexible liability standards over clear rules, the soundness of New York Times v. Sullivan, and the lack of meaningful constitutional limits on tort reform legislation.

            The Executive Committee of the Torts and Compensation System is delighted to have assembled for the 2010 AALS Annual Meeting a panel of world-renowned tort scholars consisting of Jules Coleman (Yale), Jill Horwitz (Michigan), Joshua Getzler (Oxford), and Benjamin Zipursky (Fordham). The panelist will critically examine various dimensions of Professor Epstein’s work, and its potential significance for future tort law and scholarship.  After Professor Epstein has an opportunity to respond, a question-and-answer session will follow. 

           

Call for Papers

 

            Papers written by panelists at this year’s AALS Torts Section meeting will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Tort Law (“JTL”).   JTL is also at this time inviting scholars to submit papers for publication on this topic.  Ordinary JTL submissions procedures and publication standards will apply.  Deadline for submissions of papers is January 4, 2010, 5 p.m. Eastern Time (U.S.). 

 

- SBS

 

 

NYT Letters on Med Mal

The NYT has a letters-to-the-editor section devoted to medical malpractice.

--CJR

Miller & Tucker on Incentives of Adopting Electronic Medical Records

Amalia Miller (Virginia-Economics) & Catherine Tucker (MIT-Management Science) have posted to SSRN Electronic Discovery and Electronic Medical Records:  Does the Threat of Litigation Affect Firm Decisions to Adopt Technology?  Here is the abstract:

After firms adopt electronic information and communication technologies, their decision-making leaves a trail of electronic information. We ask how the threat of litigation affects decisions to adopt technologies that leave more of an electronic trail, such as electronic medical records (EMRs). EMRs allow hospitals to document electronically both patient symptoms and health providers' reactions to those symptoms. We find evidence that hospitals are a third less likely to adopt electronic medical records if there are state laws that facilitate the use of electronic records in court.

--CJR

Personal Injury Roundup No. 40 (6/19/09)

I hope you are enjoying the opportunity to focus exclusively on scholarship as much as I am.  Without further ado...

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Obama open to med mal reform, but not damage caps.  (ABA Journal)
• States reform med mal for ER docs. (Point of Law)  On this issue, AZ bill advances. (AZCapitolTimes)  I prefer a different approach.

Trials, Settlement and Other Ends

• In NC:  a $500,000 alienation of affections and criminal conversation award.  (Overlawyered)  Again, I prefer a different approach.  (I'm feeling contrary.) 
• Jury awards $1.8M in MI med mal death case.  (Morning Sun)

Damages

• Will Exxon now pay for the Valdez spill?  (The Pop Tort)  (See also Legal Newsline.com)

Appeals    

• A decision that was to clarify PA products law has been dismissed as improvidently granted.  (Drug & Device Law)

Miscellaneous

• VA law firm Williams Mullen has started a new business tort blog, Unfair Business Practices.  (Day on Torts)

--CJR

Korzec on Federalizing Products Liability

Rebecca Korzec (Baltimore) has posted on SSRN her 2003 article Products Liability Harmonization:  A Uniform Standard.  Here is the abstract:

Among industrialized nations, the United States is unique in addressing tort law at the state rather than the national level. For example, Australia and Canada, which share a common-law heritage with the United States, have federal tort systems. The United States approach may be appropriate in some tort settings, such as in the premises liability or motor vehicle accident context (not involving a claim of products liability), where the state rule’s impact remains within that state’s geographical boundaries. Unlike the simple 'fender-bender', which occurs within the borders of one state, the typical product is manufactured and marketed nationally or internationally. Therefore, several factors suggest that uniform federal treatment of product liability laws may be a more desirable means of regulation.

--CJR

Obama to Embrace Apology Legislation as Med Mal Reform?

So surmises McKnight's in this brief piece.

--CJR

Have You Friended Your Drug Company?

As the Washington Postreports, drug companies are getting creative in their marketing, using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other on-line outlets to pitch their products.

The FDA is watching the development with interest. "If drug companies or others working on behalf of drug companies wish to promote [their products] using social media tools, FDA would evaluate the resulting messages as to whether they comply with the applicable laws and regulations." said Karen Riley, a spokeswoman for the agency. "Our laws and regulations don't restrict the channels that prescription drug companies choose to use for disseminating product promotional messages."

- SBS