Showing papers on "Damages published in 1972"

When Does the Rule of Liability Matter

Abstract: The active interface between law and economics has been limited largely to antitrust and regulation, but recent work, primarily in economics, has revealed a much wider area of common interest. The law, reasoning that crops stand in the way of a neighbor's cattle, can leave the farmer to bear the cost of crop damage; alternatively, reasoning that cattle stray errantly across farm fields, the law can assign liability for crop damages to ranchers. The question of long-run considerations has been raised because it would seem that different liability rules would alter the profitability of remaining inside or outside each industry. Once significant transacting or negotiating cost is admitted into the analysis, the choice of liability rule will have effects on resource allocation, and it no longer follows that wealth distribution is the main or even an important consideration in choosing the liability rule.

The Economic Basis of Damages for Breach of Contract

Abstract: IN many respects, the common law of contract failed to survive the industrial revolution. It is now applied only in the interstices among specialized statutory and judge-made rules dealing with specific contract types.' And business now often prefers informal understandings to formal contracts.2 Perhaps the decline is the result of increases in the variousness of commercial transactions or in the costs and delays of judicial procedure. Nonetheless one is tempted first to examine the body of law itself. If that law has become ambiguous or economically irrational it must accept some of the blame for its own demise.

Damages for lost amenities: for a foot, a feeling or a function?

Abstract: “The rational principles upon which damages … are to be assessed … tend … to be obscured by familiar phrases which lawyers use but seldom pause to analyse.” (Diplock L.J. in Wise v. Kay).

A Behavioral Analysis of Directors’ Liability for Negligence

Abstract: Directors of large corporations are sometimes compared, with considerable justice, to the supreme party council in a one-party state. Potentates of countries commonly regarded as dictatorial might look with envy on American corporate directors not only for the funds of money of which they dispose, but also for the security of their tenure.' But there are many ways in which directors are unlike a dictatorial presidium. One of the distinctions, and perhaps the most important, is directors' liability to pay damages when they make mistakes.2 Professor Joseph W. Bishop, Jr., writing of the "failure of directors to direct," has declared that "the only legal deterrent to such conduct, and perhaps the only deterrent of any sort, is the fear of civil liability."3 The civil liability of directors may be usefully divided for analysis into two parts. The first part is liability for self-serving conduct-for example, by paying themselves excessive compensation, or by making contracts favorable to their own interests. The second part is liability for negligence-for example, by making an unwise investment based upon an incorrect financial statement. It is the latter type of liability that this article will discuss. Negligence liability may, in turn, be divided into two parts. One of these is directors' liability to the corporation for any failure to

A New Program for More Monetary Stability

Abstract: One of the major shortcomings of the theory of economic policy has been that insufficient attention is paid to its macroeconomic foundations. This paper offers some insights for improving monetary stabilization policy which derive from application of the familiar theory of public goods. As perhaps evidenced by the recent resort to wage and price controls, errors in monetary policy inflict disbenefits on third parties who are not directly involved in the game-theoretic exchanges between monetary policy makers and the economic environment.' Indeed, the damages from these exchanges sometimes appear almost as extensive as those which Oscar Levant suffered from a narcotic which he described as providing "nothing but side effects."2 Clearly, monetary policy makers should, as a matter of efficiency, pay for their mistakes. And, consistent with the participatory revolution, parties harmed by monetary policy blunders should get involved. How much of our productive resources should be allocated the Fed in its game against nature? Ideally, the "bads" produced by monetary policy makers might be handled by a series of private exchanges between them and the parties harmed by their behavior, using either the courts or the market to reduce

Of Rights and Remedies: The Constitution as a Sword

Abstract: In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,t the Supreme Court held that a cause of action for damages against federal law enforcement officers who violate the fourth amendment could be inferred directly from constitutional provisions. Through analysis of the reasoning which necessarily underlies such a holding, the author draws several general conclusions about the respective roles of the Court and Congress in creating and restricting remedies effectuating constitutional guarantees. He then applies his analysis to the possibilities for independent judicial creation of an action against governmental units and for legislative replacement of the exclusionary rule with compensatory remedies against the fisc.

Damages due to drainage, runoff, blasting, and slides

Abstract: THIS PUBLICATION DISCUSSES THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF DAMAGES DUE TO LANDSLIDES, BLASTING, DRAINAGE AND RUNOFF LANDSLIDES ARE DISCUSSED UNDER THE FOLLOWING TOPICS: LIABILITY COMMON-LAW RULE; ABUTTERS' DUTIES; LIABILITY IN LOSS OF SUPPORT AND INVASION OF PROPERTY; TIME OF TAKING AND STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS; MEASURE OF DAMAGES; MINIMIZATION OF LOSS; REMEDIES OF LANDOWNER; DEFENSES; AND LIABILITY TO TRAVELERS. BLASTING IS DISCUSSED UNDER THESE TOPICS: LIABILITY; CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS, TORT ACTIONS AND ACTIONS AGAINST CONTRACTOR; DAMAGE BY VIBRATION FROM OTHER SOURCES; AND DAMAGE AND EVIDENCE. DRAINAGE AND RUNOFF ARE DISCUSSED IN RELATION TO: REMAINDER DAMAGES; INVERSE OR REVERSE CONDEMNATION; CLASSIFICATION OF WATERS; SURFACE WATER RULES; WATERCOURSES; FLOOD WATERS; VALUATION APPROACH IN INVERSE CONDEMNATION CASES; AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS. A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND APPRAISAL COMMENTS ARE INCLUDED.

Economic losses and negligence the search for a just solution

Abstract: This article canvasses the development of the rule denying recovery in negligence where the foreseeable harm is economic and the relationship between the parties is wider than that of contract or trust. It surveys the generalization of liability that subsequently occurred, arguing it is illogical, capricious and supportable only by reference to historical development which is itself suspect. It reviews modern developments that mitigate the rule’s effects and, the author believes, invalidate its dogmatic use. Decisions made subsequent to the modern developments are divided into two groups: those where no attempt was made to apply the new rules, and those where at least some attempt was made. Using the second group of cases for guidance, he proposes a new principle of liability based in an objective formulation of responsibility suited to economic loss cases and suggests factors that should be considered in application.

Subsidence Damage in Southern Arizona

Abstract: In western Pinal County, South Central Arizona, land is subsiding over a heavily mined aquifer. As a consequence, damages to structures on the surface occur and these damages have given rise to concern as to what remedies should be enacted to stop these subsidences. The principal proposals to eliminate these damages are to stop the over draught, either via water importation or, legislation to limit water pumping. The purpose of this paper is to inventory these damages to help provide a basis upon which cost studies can be performed to help determine what particular steps and actions can be taken to lessen the economic impact of these damages. To fully understand the type of damage occurring, it is necessary to examine the mechanism by which subsidence occurs. Essentially, this is due to water table drawdown and increased loading stress. The two principle ways by which this occurs are changes in the bouyant support of the grains in the zone of change, and changes in the water table or of the piezometric head, or both, which induce hydraulic gradients and seepage stress in the deposits (Lofgren, 1961). Generally, if mining conditions exist, these result in a one -directional compression of the deposits which result in subsidence of the land surface. This sinking, as indicated by U.S.G.S. maps of the area (Schuman, 1970), occurs in a fairly uniform

The year of spoiled pork: comments on the court's emergence as an environmental defender

Abstract: On January 19, 1971, President Nixon, catching most White House observers by surprise, issued a terse, 275-word statement halting further construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. This was imperative, the President declared, "to prevent potentially serious environmental damages" and was done at the urging of the new Council on Environmental Quality; the Council warned that the project "could endanger the unique wildlife of the area and destroy this region of unusual and unique natural beauty."' Thus was the nation notified that the canal, weighed by the President against the newly minted values expressed in the National Environmental Policy Act, had been judged a $50 million mistake.

Full compensation in urban roadway construction: a necessary and practical objective

Abstract: FOR THERE TO BE FULL COMPENSATION TO ALL INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS, ALL COSTS AND BENEFITS MUST BE DISAGREGATED AND DISTRIBUTED ACCURATELY BY GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION, BY SOCIAL CLASS, AND OVER TIME. FULL COMPENSATION FOR PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS NOT DISPLACED, BUT DISRUPTED, CANNOT NOW BE FUNDED BY FEDERAL OR STATE HIGHWAY BUILDING PROGRAMS. VOIDS IN EXISTING KNOWLEDGE OF IMPACT SHOULD BE FILLED BY (A) RESEARCH IN SPECIFIC PROBLEMS THAT MIGHT BE CALLED "CONSEQUENTIAL" RESEARCH, (B) RESEARCH IN HOW COMMUNITIES (URBAN REGIONAL SUBAREAS) FUNCTION, AND WHAT THE EFFECT OF CHANGE IS ON MEMBERS OF COMMUNITIES, (C) RESEARCH IN REGIONAL FUNCTION AND CHANGE, IN PARTICULAR, IN DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF ACCESSIBILITY, AND (D) ACCURATE RECORDS KEEPING ON THE IMPACT OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION. HELPFUL LEGISLATION INCLUDES (A) CREATION OF AN IMPACT ZONE WITHIN WHICH "NEGOTIATED TAKINGS" ARE PERMISSIBLE; (B) PAYMENT OF "CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES" FOR SPECIFIED TAKINGS, PARTICULARLY IN THE IMPACT ZONE; (C) INVESTMENT OF MODES COSTS IN THE HEALING OF THE ROADWAY-COMMUNITY EDGES; (D) A REQUIREMENT THAT SCARCE RESOURCES BE REPLACED IN KIND; (E) PROVISION OF COMMUNITY PLANNING MONEY AS PART OF THE HIGHWAY LOCATION AND DESIGN PROCESS; AND (F) DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAJOR SHARE OF HIGHWAY TRUST FUND MONEYS DIRECTLY TO THE STATES AND DIRECTLY TO THE MAJOR STANDARD METROPOLITAN AREAS THAT GENERATE THEM, WITH WIDE DISCRETIONARY POWERS IN THE ALLOCATION OF THOSE FUNDS, PARTICULARLY THE LOCAL MATCHING SHARES. /AUTHOR/

A vasectomy case: the meaning of "malpractice" and the "discovery rule."

Abstract: LEGAL cases seem to come in bunches. In a recent column,1 I discussed two cases of first impression — i.e., entirely new legal issues, regarding the right of a patient to recover damages for bringi...