Duty and Liability

Participatory Liability for Breach of Trust or Fiduciary Duty

Confusion surrounds the equitable liability of a third party to a trust or fiduciary relationship who participates in a breach of the trust or fiduciary duty, but without necessarily receiving trust property.1 Compounding this confusion is the absence of consensus in courts that share a common Chancery law heritage. Notably, the English courts, including the Privy Council within that term, and ...

Hospital liability for the right reasons: a non-delegable duty to provide support services.

The goal of the tort system can be reduced to one basic principle: the judiciary imposes legal responsibility on certain actors for certain conduct in order to remedy past harms and influence prospective behavior. Over the course of its existence, our judiciary has designated particular actors deserving of legal responsibility for various reasons. Guiding this imposition, however, is the will a...

Parental liability for preconception negligence: do parents owe a legal duty to their potential children?

Case Law Developments Addressing the Consequences of a Liability Insurer’s Breach of Its Duty to Defend

Liability and liability insurance for medical malpractice.

Physicians typically carry virtually complete malpractice insurance coverage. This contradicts standard theoretical predictions that under a negligence rule of liability there should be no demand for insurance, and insurance policies under moral hazard will contain co-payment provisions. It is argued that judicial 'errors' in defining negligence generate a demand for liability and legal defense...