Only tort liability acted as a check on the manufacturer, and, interestingly, there were few lawsuits.
Courts in New York handed down two interesting decisions yesterday pushing back against the inexorable expansion of tort liability.
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Meanwhile the courts have shackled product innovators in a separate way, by greatly expanding the risks of tort liability.
Under the deep-pocket theory, which says, to put it somewhat cynically, that tort liability automatically expands to the nearest available pot of money.
As the Gulf oil disaster has grown, so has debate about whether regulation or tort liability is the most effective deterrent to such accidents.
Together Bush and his coalition would pass the biggest tax cut in the state's history, reform its tort-liability system and boost reading scores enough to give him bragging rights on a national scale.
The case requires the high court to determine whether the motor vehicle safety standards established by the federal government effectively preempt a products liability claim under state tort law.
Thus, as the Court announced the dawn of corporate criminal liability in Americawith an embrace of tort law, it simultaneously signaled to generations of prosecutors that arguments of necessity and public policy would, in the realm of corporate crime at least, carry great sway.
Mazda presents one of the most contentious issues in tort law today: Whether jurors applying state-law concepts of liability can essentially write their own safety regulations for manufacturers.
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Now the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Pennsylvania judge was correct in allowing jurors to consider that evidence. (Thanks Abnormal Use for the tip.) The decision is interesting because it discusses not only the logical tension embedded in much modern products-liability law but the intellectual calisthenics federal judges must engage in when hearing a case based on state tort law.
FORBES: Jurors Can Hear Evidence Bike Helmet Met Standards, Court Rules
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