Comments on: Clearly I’m teaching the wrong classes. . .

By: Yooveeay Wahoo

Yooveeay Wahoo — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:26:26 +0000

My Torts final did involve a woman who had an allergic reaction to her rescuer’s latex gloves . . . so 1Ls beware, study hard on the any cases you can find on by search lexis for {allergy AND tort! AND Posner OR Hand OR Calebrisi}

By: Kaimi

Kaimi — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:33:43 +0000

Good point, Dave. I overspoke — this wasn’t the _first_ thing to come to mind, and I did think “how terrible” and “poor boyfriend.”

That said, I also almost immediately started wondering about the interesting battery and consent issues Christine notes.

By: Christine Hurt

Christine Hurt — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 03:16:38 +0000

That’s a good battery/consent hypo. Does she have to consent to the kiss or to a peanut kiss? Does the kisser have to know that the peanut kiss will be offensive? I like it. (I don’t know what the answer is, but I like the question.)

By: John Jenkins

John Jenkins — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:35:08 +0000

My memory of my first semester torts final is of a person who was “assaulted” by another person telling the first person there was a tiger in the woods when there was no tiger.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:31:31 +0000

It’s pretty hard to work a peanut-kiss-death into my … Securities Regulation final.

How about this: Planter’s (or a peanut company that just went public) failed to disclose pending peanut-related lawsuit in its diclosure forms?

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:03:22 +0000

Dave: admittedly it is a tragedy, but in the days of collage, post-structuralism, and television “ripped from the headlines”, I don’t think that it’s inappropriate to use it as inspiration.

You bring up an interesting point about the young man involved, though. At the risk of pushing this towards a philosophy/ethics problem (involving a brain in a vat at the helm of a runaway train, etc.): part a of the question could deal with the family suing for wrongful death, while part b could deal with a possible countersuit for therapy bills for the resultant emotional distress.

By: Dave Hoffman

Dave Hoffman — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:44:44 +0000

Kaimi,

Not to be a downer, but in my opinion the more charitable first thought would probably have been: what a tragedy for the family, and what a horrifying experience for the boyfriend. It’s too easy to see the news as entertainment, especially the “news” on CNN and other like-minded conglomerates.

My torts final involved very little torts, but a very interesting question about the Shavell punitive damages formula. My answer, as I recall, contained a long footnote about comparative bird-watching in England and the States. Thank you, Jon Hanson, for not failing me!