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What are types of product defects?
- 1. defective manufacture or assembly - faulty materials in manufacture or errors in assembly.
- 2. defective design - the product is not resonably safe for its intended or reasonably foreseeable purpose and is unresonably dangerous.
- 3. failure to warn of all forseeable dangers to all forseeable users
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What are defenses to product liability claims?
- 1. state of the art - no known way of making the product safer
- 2. compliance with statues and regulations
- 3. compliance with the buyer's specifications - unless the defect is obvious
- 4. open and obvious danger - knives, guns, and gasoline.
- 5. plantiff's knowledge
- 6. assumption of risk - the plantiff knowlingly and voluntarily subject himself to the risk.
- 7. product misue
- 8. alteration of product
- 9. written disclaimers
- note: written disclaimers are a valid defense in contractual breach of warranty actions but are not valid defense in strict liability actions. Passive negligence (failure to check for defects0 is not a defense.
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Environmental damage claism cover what?
Common law claims for personal injury and property damage and statutory claims for cleanup of and damage to natural resources.
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What are toxic torts?
traditional tort cases to compensate individuals for damges caused by toxic substances.
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What are statutes applicable to toxic torts and environmental damge claims?
- 1. FIFRA (federal insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide act - regulates pesticides.
- 2. Clean Air Act - estabilshes national emisson standards for airborne pollutants.
- 3. Clean Water Act - federal water pollution control act - regulates discharges into US waters.
- 4. Toxic Substances Control Act - regulates the testing, manufacturing and distribution of toxic substances
- 5. RCRA (resource cnservation and recovery act) regulates all stages of the hazardous waste cycle.
- 6. CERCLA (comprehsive environmental resource, compensation, and liability act - allocated 1.6 billion to the Superfund to study and remediate hazardous waste sites on the NPL (national priority list). This was ncreased to 8.5 billion under SARA)
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Who are the parties that may be liable under federal environmental laws?
- 1. generators - those who crated the toxic substance.
- 2. transporters - those who take it to its buyer or to ist disposal site.
- 3. current owners and operators of hazardous waste facilities, and
- 4. past owners and operators of hazardous waste facilities
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Define and explain the types of damages in tort law suits.
- 1. Nominal damages, often $1, ar granted for vilated tort rights without financial consequncs, such as unitentional trespass, especially by young children.
- 2. Compensatory damages compensate the plantiff. they include
- a. special damages - money quantifiable losses for lost wages, medical bills and damaged property
- b. general damages - nonquantifialbe money losses for pain and suffering; for permanent injuries and loss of companionship.
- c. emotional distress damages for mental or emothional pain that accompanied by physical injury
- d. bad faith damages - where the defendant acted unreasonably, either knowingly or with complete disregard of other's rights.
- e. wrong ful death damges based on the deceased's human life value - paid to his dependents, not to his estate.
- 3. Punitive damages - punish the defendant and eter him and others form repeating such represhisible acts as bad faith, malice, or deceit.
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What is meant by a torfeasor's capacity?
All people (including minors, the insane, and the intoxicated0 are liable for their torts regardless of their mental capacities. but if the tort requires intent, the defedant can present a defense based on lack of capacity to form intent.
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What is good samaritan laws?
All states have these laws that provide that a person who provides gratuitous emergency services at an accident scene is judged by a good faith standard and is not liable for ordinary negligence.
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A class action lets represntative parties sue on behalf of a group of pepole who have suffered similar hard from a similar wrong. What are the four requiremens for a class action?
- 1. Numerosity - the group is so large that it is ipractical to try the cases separately.
- 2. Commonality - the group has a well-fefined common interest in the issues of law and fact.
- 3. Typicality - the claims and defenses of represntative parties are typical of all class members.
- 4. Adequacy of represntation - the representaive parties failry and completently represent the class.
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what are the statues of limitation and statues of repose?
they requie that actions be brought within a limited time period to prevent the facts of the case from becoming excessively stale and witnesses from becoming excessively dead.
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What does the statues of limitation do?
it bars tort suits initiated more than a stated period (often two years) after the cause of action accrued (all elements of the cause of action first existed).
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What is the statute of repose?
it bars tort suits initiated more than a stated period - often six years - after the date of the breach of the duty to exercise resonable care. Note that the statute of repose may expire befor ethe cause of action accrues.
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Agency may be created in three ways. What are they?
- 1. by appontment and agreement - most agencies are created by the principal apponting the agent and the agent agreeing to the appointment.
- 2. by estopple - if a person puts a second person in a postion where a resonable t hird person who think that agency exists.
- 3. by ratificatin - principal retroactively authorizes and act or agreement beyond the original scope of the agency.
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Agency autority is either one of three things?
- 1. expresses authority - based on the prinicipals specific instructions
- 2. implied authority - based on the prinipals prior conduct or trade custom
- 3. emergency autority - based on the need to protect the pinicipals interests but limited by what a resonable agent would believe a reaonable principal would expect.
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