This would be funny – if it wasn’t true. John Jenkins sat down in a portable toilet to start and finish some personal business and have a cigarette – and the toilet exploded! Apparently, there was a methane gas leaking from a broken pipe under the toilet. When Jenkins struck…
While investigating a potential case, you may find that a possible defendant has a piece of evidence you want. This is a letter requesting the potential defendant preserve the evidence and make it available for inspection. If the defendant refuses to let you view the evidence – or outright destroys…
The Ray by Holman v. BIC Corp., 925 S.W.2d 527 (Tenn. 1996) case is a leading decision in Tennessee products liability law. Start your products liability research with this case (right after you read the Tennessee Products Liability Act). The opinion states that that Tennessee Products Liability Act provides for…
The most famous plaintiff in the history of Tennessee tort law is Harry Douglas McIntyre, of McIntyre v. Ballentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992), fame. For those of you who are not from Tennessee, Mr. McIntyre was the gentleman whose case brought the law of comparative fault to Tennessee. The…
I would say that this is a familiar story, but that would only be partially correct. Ok, it starts out familar. Man has affair. He says he loves his girlfriend. He says he is going to leave his wife. He leaves his wife. He and his lover live together. They…
The distinction between a lack of informed consent case and a pure medical battery case is set out in Blanchard v. Kellum, 975 S.W.2d 522 (Tenn. 1998). An informed consent case requires expert proof as to the standard of care (or recognized standard of acceptable professional practice) of similar medical…
Do you remember when the drug companies told us that they were going to release more data about clinical drug trials? That was a year ago. The New York Times has taken a look at the record developed over the last year and discovered that some drug companies are not…
This is off topic, but very interesting. The United States Supreme Court has just overturned Arthur Anderson’s criminal conviction. The Court held that a key jury instruction was in error. Read the opinion here.
What is the name of the case that tells us that violation of a statute is negligence per se? Cook By and Through Uithoven v. Spinnaker’s of Rivergate, 878 S.W.2d 934, 937 (Tenn. 1994). What about the violation of a regulation? Long by Cotton v. Brookside Manor, 885 S.W.2d 70,…
That’s right. I just finished a ten-day vacation and now I have decided to take Saturday off. I can’t help it. I have a hearing that will consume June 2, 3, 6 and 7, an argument in the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 8, and a mediation in a major…