Every Bundle includes the complete text from each of the titles below:
PLUS: Hundreds of law school topic-related videos from
The Understanding Law Video Lecture Series™:
Choose Your Subscription:
--OR--
Register and Subscribe Now
Every Bundle includes the complete text from each of the titles below:
PLUS: Hundreds of law school topic-related videos from
The Understanding Law Video Lecture Series™:
Choose Your Subscription:
--OR--
Citation. L.R. 3 H.L. 330 (1868)
Brief Fact Summary.
Defendant built a reservoir on top of plaintiff’s old mine. After the reservoir was completed, the mine shaft collapsed and flooded plaintiff’s mine.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
If a person brings a dangerous thing onto the land, and then the dangerous thing escapes, then the person is liable for resulting damages automatically.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff was a social guest of defendant and was injured by the defective bathroom fixture in defendant’s apartment.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Where the occupier of land is aware of a concealed condition involving an unreasonable risk of harm to, a failure to warn the guest or to repair the condition constitutes negligence.
Brief Fact Summary.
The plaintiff was accused of stealing items from the defendant employer. In the course of the search for the missing items, the plaintiff was asked to remain in the guardhouse with two guards instructed to keep him there.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
False imprisonment requires a victim to be totally restrained and to have not given implied consent.
Brief Fact Summary.
In these consolidated cases, a truck crashed through the window of Concentra Medical Clinic, causing deaths and injuries of several people. Both groups of plaintiffs sued the defendant, which was the owner and operator of the shopping center that Concentra located at.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
When determining the existence of a duty of care, foreseeability is not a question for courts to consider.
Continue reading “Rodriguez v. Del Sol Shopping Center Associates, L.P.”
Citation. 81 Vt, 471, 71 A. 188 (1908)
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff tied his boat to defendant’s dock to avoid danger in the midst of a violent storm. Defendant’s servant found out and untied the boat. Plaintiff and his family were injured and the boat was destroyed by the storm.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Necessity is a justifiable defense to entries upon land and interferences with personal property that would otherwise have been trespass.
Brief Fact Summary.
The plaintiff was forced to evacuate its offices due to a chemical spill caused by the defendant. No physical harm was suffered, but economic loss occurred due to the suspension of business.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
A defendant who has breached his duty of care to avoid the risk of economic injury to foreseeable plaintiffs may be held liable for actual economic losses proximately caused by his breach of duty.
Continue reading “People Express Airlines, Inc. v. Consolidated Rail Corp.”
Brief Fact Summary.
While a passenger trying to jump aboard, he dropped a package which contained fireworks and exploded. The explosion caused some scales to fall and hit Plaintiff.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
If defendant commits a negligent act, defendant would be liable for that risk of some foreseeable result, but generally not liable for an entirely different, unforeseeable result.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff was on her passage to Boston. Pursuant to Boston quarantine regulations, all travelers needed to be vaccinated before arrival, so the surgeon vaccinated Plaintiff on her shipboard. Plaintiff did not want to receive the vaccination and sued Cunard Steamship Company for assault.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
In determining whether there is consent, the Court should look at plaintiff’s overt acts and the manifestations of her feelings. Plaintiff’s subjective state of mind does not matter.
Brief Fact Summary.
The plaintiff, a heavier woman, got into a car accident in her Ford Explorer. Upon impact, her seat collapsed backwards, and she fractured her spine, rendering her a paraplegic. There was no warning from the manufacturer that the seat might collapse in this manner.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Strict liability for failure to warn can still be applied even if the product in question was not defective. If the product was rendered unreasonably dangerous by characteristics of its users, an adequate warning is necessary.
Brief Fact Summary.
The defendant alleged in a newspaper article that the plaintiff had lied under oath in a judicial proceeding.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
The First Amendment does not prohibit the application under Ohio’s libel law to the defamations in the article.
Brief Fact Summary.
The plaintiff underwent a surgery performed by the defendant, and, in the course of the operation, was deprived of oxygen. This led to brain damage and a permanent coma.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
A plaintiff must be aware of her loss of enjoyment of life to be compensated for it, and that loss must be considered under the umbrella of pain and suffering damages rather than separately.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff and husband were driving a buggy without headlights on a dark highway at night, violating a statute that requires headlights. Defendant rounded a curve on the highway in the opposition direction and crashed into plaintiff. The accident caused the death of plaintiff’s husband.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Unexcused omission of statute required signals is negligence itself.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff was traveling in a car and was involved in a car accident. The truck driver, who almost caused the collision, stopped the truck on the road and offered to help push plaintiff’s car back to the road. To warn oncoming vehicles about the accident, plaintiff went up the hill. Defendant was driving another car on the road. To avoid hitting the truck, defendant went into a skid and hit plaintiff.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
The primary test for proximate cause focuses on whether the nature and circumstances of the particular harm foreseeable?
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff’s car crashed and plaintiff was injured. Defendant was the manufacturer of the car, however, plaintiff bought the car from a dealer not defendant directly. Additionally, the defective wheels which caused the accident were manufactured by a separate manufacturer.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
If a manufacturer, who puts a finished product on the market to be used without inspection by his customers, is negligent, where danger is to be foreseen, a liability will follow.
Brief Fact Summary.
Leichtman is a guest of the radio studio to make a public radio appearance with the host. At the host’s urging, a smoker repeatedly blew cigar smoke in Plaintiff’s face.
Plaintiff filed a case against the radio station and the host for battery, invasion of privacy, and a violation of Cincinnati, Ohio, Bd. of Health Reg. § 00083. The main issue here is whether intentionally blowing cigar smoke at another suffice the element of contact.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Tobacco smoke has the physical properties capable of making contact, thus a person can commit a battery by intentionally directing tobacco smoke at another.
Brief Fact Summary.
There were two separate fires that joined together and destroyed the plaintiff’s property. One was caused by the defendant’s locomotive, and the other one had an unknown origin.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
The fact that the northeast fire was set by the defendant, which was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s damage, is sufficient to establish the defendant’s liability, because in negligence any one of multiple tortfeasors whose concurring acts of negligence result in injury, are each individually responsible for the entire damage resulting from their joint or concurrent acts of negligence, even each act alone is sufficient to cause such injury.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff broke into defendants’ farmhouse and was seriously injured by a “spring gun” trap. Plaintiff, while admitting trespassing and theft, sued for damages caused by the injury.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
No privilege exists to use force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to prevent trespass unless the trespass threatens death or great bodily harm to the property owner.
Brief Fact Summary.
Defendant’s pesticide drifted and contaminated plaintiffs’ organic fields. Plaintiffs sued defendant for trespass.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Trespass claims address only tangible invasions of the right to exclusive possession of land.
Brief Fact Summary.
The defendant makes video games using the likenesses of college football players. The plaintiff, one such football player representing a class of other players, filed a lawsuit objecting to the use of his likeness in the games.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
A work must have significant transformative elements under the five factor analysis to avoid liability for using a plaintiff’s likeness.
Continue reading “In re NCAA Student-Athlete Names & Likeness Licensing Litigation”
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff’s hotel caught fire and was destroyed. Plaintiff claimed that the fire was caused by sparks emitted from the chimney of defendant’s mill and sued for defendant’s negligence.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
When there is no direct evidence, the jury may consider circumstantial evidence to determine causation.
Brief Fact Summary.
The plaintiff was injured in a car accident caused by the defendant’s negligence. Her medical costs incurred by the accident were negotiated down substantially by her insurance company and the medical team that treated her.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Economic damages must be reasonable and incurred, even when the collateral source rule applies. In cases where damages have been reduced and the higher cost never incurred by the plaintiff, the defendant need only pay the reduced cost.
Continue reading “Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc.”
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiffs were injured due to a car defect. The car was manufactured by defendant Chrysler Corporation. Plaintiffs sued for negligence and breach of implied warranty.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Brief Fact Summary.
Plaintiff was a professional football player who was injured by defendant football player after plaintiff blocked defendant player. Defendant player admitted that he hit plaintiff intentionally. Plaintiff sued for battery and assault.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
Even professional football games are violent in nature, you do not consent to intentional torts outside the rules of customs of the game.
Brief Fact Summary.
The defendant’s magazine published an article about the plaintiff, an attorney, containing falsehoods and claiming he was a Communist and part of Marxist groups.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
States can define for themselves the appropriate standards of liability for a publisher or broadcaster of defamatory falsehoods injurious to a private individual without free speech concerns. That being said, presumed or punitive damages may not be recovered without a showing of knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth
Brief Fact Summary.
Five year old defendant Brian Dailey moved the chair when the plaintiff Ruth Garrett was trying to sit on the chair. As a result, Garrett fell to the ground and sustained serious injuries.
Plaintiff sued for assault and battery.
Plaintiff claimed that defendant moved the chair deliberately, but defendant claimed that he was trying to help plaintiff to sit properly but he was unable to get the chair under plaintiff in time due to his small size.
Trial court found in favor of defendant. Plaintiff now appeals.
Synopsis of Rule of Law.
The required intent in battery is the realization/knowledge to a substantial certainty, the contact or apprehension will happen.