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