To what extent are we our brother’s keeper? That is a constant question posed in cutting edge tort cases, and this case in Illinois is no exception.
Iseberg sued his two partners because they failed to warn him that a fourth partner, Slavin, had made threats against Iseberg’s life. Iseberg was a man of his word: he shot Iseberg and rendered him a paraplegic.
From the opinion of the Illinois Supreme Court:
I am at a meeting of the Members Consultative Group of the Restatement of the Law Third Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm sponsored by the American Law Institute. The meeting is being held in Austin, Texas at the University of Texas Law School. We are discussing "Duty of Land Possessors."
Last night we had dinner at the Mansion at Judge’s Hill and I had the pleasure of sitting with Victor Schwartz, an editor of the torts case book that most of us used in law school and an active tort reformer. (Indeed, he is General Counsel to the American Tort Reform Association.) We had a wonderful conversation, agreeing on more things than both of us expected and politely disagreeing on other points. Victor has a great sense of humor and a real gift of imitating the voices of many political figures.
This morning we are debating the duty, if any, of landowner’s and possessors to trespassers and the exceptions to the historic general rule of no liability. I am enjoying the debate immensely – a lot of thought has been given to the issue by the drafters and the members who are present are raising some excellent points.
Day on Torts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2008 is at the printer. The printing date is October 18 and the books should be delivered to Brentwood on October 23, 2007.
You may recall that the book will be updated during the year via a website called "dayontortsbook.com." I have seen the mock-up of that site – the folks at Justia did a great job on it. (Justia also developed our firm’s website – www.dayblair.com. These folks are extremely competent and I really enjoy working with them.) It will be available for public viewing by the end of the month.
Part I of the book is called "Leading Tennessee Tort Cases by Subject." It contains detailed summaries of 233 cases on 233 tort law subjects. It also contains citations to well over 1000 additional cases. Here is the table of contents to this section of the book.
Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of Judge Bill Cain of Columbia.
Judge Cain served on the Court of Appeals and had served as a trial judge. He was a lawyer who loved the law and loved to discuss the subject. He prided himself on his ability to dive into the books and find the answer to a problem, and was justified in his pride. We debated many tort law subjects over the years and I found him to be a worthy adversary, someone who not only knew the law but understood why the law was the way it was.
Judge Cain despised the phrase "reasonable degree of medical certainty" and did his best to relegate it to the ash-heap of history. He thought the "locality" rule in medical malpractice cases was assine, but applied it because he was duty-bound to do so. He applied to plaintiffs and defendants, and in fact reversed a jury verdict for the defendant in a Clarksville case because the defendant’s experts did not know the local standard of care.
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide "whether federal law pre-empts the product liability claims that diabetes patients filed in Michigan state court against pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert & Co." Read more here.
Those of us in small firms struggle with many of the same issues. One of those issues is the decision to hire our first (or hire another) associate?
I enjoy the Legal Ease Blog and read this article that provides some guidance on the issue.
Enjoy.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has asked for public comment on proposed changes to Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, Appellate Procedure, Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Juvenile Procedure.
The most significant proposed rule change is the change to Rule 8.01. The proposed rule change says as follows:
8.01 Claims for Relief.–A pleading which sets forth a claim for relief, whether an original claim, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim, shall contain: (1) a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief; and (2) a demand for judgment for the relief the pleader seeks, including a specific dollar amount if damages are sought. Relief in the alternative or of several different types may be demanded.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal in two cases that address the issue of apparent agency. In both cases plainitffs seek to impose liability on a hospital for the acts of a doctor. The cases have been consolidated for appeal.
One case is DeWald v. HCA Heatlh Services of Tennessee, No. M2006-02369-COA-R9-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 12, 2007);. This case involves an ER physician. Read the opinion here.
The other case is Boren v. Weeks, No. M2007-00628-COA-R0-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 12, 2007). This case also involves an ER physician. Read the opinion here.
My new book, referenced in this post, will be available November 1, 2007, not 2008. Sorry for the error. I guess I can pass it off on age – I turn 51 (or is it 52?) tomorrow.
The book goes to the printer today. The first section has 66 chapters and 233 featured cases on 233 tort law topics; each case is summarized to address the indicated legal topic to save you time and help launch your research effort. This section of the book totals 439 pages.
The next 500+ pages contain selected statutes as well as the rules of evidence, civil procedure, and appellate procedure.
On November 1, 2008 my new book will be available for sale.
My goal for this book is to provide a one-volume resource for Tennessee tort lawyers who are looking for a quick reference to the leading case on a given point. Need a quick summary of the law of informed consent? In less than one minute you will be able to find the leading case on point and use the concise summary of the holding in that case as a launching point for additional research. Receive a call on a potential defamation case? In less than one minute you will find a 13-page chapter that summarizes the leading Tennessee cases on the topic and references over 50 more cases,
The book, called DayonTorts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers, organizes the leading Tennessee cases by topic. Many of the summaries also include citations to other cases of interest on the particular legal issue. In total, over 1000 cases are cited in the book.
