Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

The April 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail.

This edition includes a summary of 11 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between February 15 and March 15, 2009. The newsletter totals 40 pages, including 20 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinion issued last month. We add the full-text of the Smartt  decision because we think that it is significant enough that lawyers who seek to stay on top of tort law will want to read it in full.

The newsletter also includes (a) Part 1 of my new,  four-part article of the law of jury selection; and (b) a summary of the status of 20 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

The Judicial Selection Commission and the Judicial Evaluation Commission are in a wind-up period after the General Assembly let them die last year.  (I serve on the later commission as an appointee of former Lt. Governor John S. Wilder.) Both commissions will die on June 30, 2009 unless the General Assembly takes action to provide for their continued existence.

What happens to our  existing judges if the commissions are permitted to die?  What happens when a vacancy occurs? This is what the Attorney General thinks should happen:

1. Because there would be no statutory mechanism in place for the election of appellate judges upon the expiration of the two commissions, there could not be an election for appellate court judges in either 2010 or 2014. By virtue of Article VII, §5, of the Tennessee Constitution, incumbent appellate court judges would hold over pending further action of the General Assembly to determine the manner of the election of such judges. On the other hand, expiration of the two commissions would not change the current system for electing trial court judges. Incumbent trial court judges either seeking election in 2010 to the unexpired portion of an eight year term or reelection in 2014 to a full eight-year term could stand for election by the qualified voters of their districts in August of 2010 and 2014, respectively.

The rules of civil procedure in Tennessee ordinarily require that a plaintiff make a "short, plain statement.."  There is an exception – Rule 9 of the TRCP requires pleading with particularity when fraud or mistake are alleged.

Nothwithstanding the general rule, some people believe that more is better.  Here is an example, from a real complaint in a real case:

Plaintiff was operating said vehicle in a safe and prudent manner, lawfully and under conditions commensurate with road and weather conditions on or about January 1, 2009, on Highway X in Some County, Tennessee, when Plaintiff fell asleep and drove off the roadway.  Upon exiting the roadway, the vehicle came to a sudden stop when it collided with a culvert along the side of the roadway.  The vehicle was equipped with airbags which did not deploy in the accident.

Yesterday (March 15) was the 111th birthday of William L. Prosser, author of the torts text used by most of us in law school and Reporter for the Restatement (Second) of Torts. 

All weekend I heard the drone of certain business reporters and various members of the Republican Party  that President Obama was responsible for the declines in the stock market over the last six weeks.

Well, the market went up 5.8% yesterday.  Should the President get the credit for that increase?

Of course not.  And he should not get the blame for what has happened the last six weeks.  The mess we now find ourselves in was created over the last thirty, forty or fifty years by a series of mistakes made by lots of people in the public and private sector.  Anyone who says that they thought  that the economic situation would materially improve in the last six weeks is a simpleton, a liar, or both..

Lawyer and cartoonist David Mills shares his craft on Courtoons.  An example:

I confess to extreme jealously of lawyers who have talent is any aspect of the world of art or music. 

The March 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail.

This edition includes a summary of 20 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between January 15 and February 15, 2009.   The newsletter totals 47 pages, including 22 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the three most important cases of the last month.  We add the full-text of selected decisions because we think that they are significant enough that lawyers who seek to stay on top of tort law will want to read them in full.

The newsletter also includes (a) Part 3 of my three-part article of the law of motions In limine;  and (b) a summary of the status of 22 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the  Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Tennessee. 

Here is an animation of the crash of US Airways 1549 landing in the Hudson River prepared by Scene Systems.  The simulation includes the audio from the pilot and air traffic control.

Scene Systems creates animations for litigation of all types.

Tort lawyers have been carefully watching the tobacco lawsuit against Phillip Morris which arose out of the death of 55-year old Stuart Hess.  The Florida jury imposed liability several days ago and earlier today awarded $3M in compensatory damages and $5M in punitive damages.  Read more here.

Today’s  USA TODAY includes an interesting article titled "How much ‘truth’ is too much?" written by Rod Dreher.  The article addresses the impact of the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse sandal on the life of the author, who investigated and wrote about it.

Readers who know me know that our firm filed the two successful cases against the Nashville Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.  We were associated in the cases by John Hollins, Jr.   I will not go into details, but suffice it to say that these two cases changed my life, and not in a positive way.  I continue to struggle with conduct of the Church in those cases, actions that I did not believe would be even possible from those affillated with any respectable church.  Perhaps I was naive, but unlike most times in my life the education I received has had more negative consequences than positive.

Like the author, I disagree with the concept expressed by Father Richard John Neuhaus, who is reported as having  said "[t]here are things [Catholics] really don’t want to know about their church."   Like the author, there are times I wish I had not looked under the rock.  And, like the author, I sometimes wonder "[h]ow much reality must we choose to ignore for the greater good of our own souls, and society?"