January 1992 Archives

A broad overview of asbestos litigation focusing on the role of contingency fees, the development of "special asbestos law", the changing mix of claimed diseases, punitive damages, mass consolidations, successor liability and federal responsibility for the exposure to asbestos of World War II shipyard workers.

For more than a decade, proposals have circulated for an out-of-court administrative alternative to asbestos litigation. This proposal for such a system was commissioned by the Administrative Conference of the United States, and includes a analysis of constitutional and policy considerations.

In many a textbook on tort liability, Judge Learned Hand's celebrated 1932 opinion in the case of The T.J. Hooper stands for the proposition that a liability defendant may not argue in defense of a disputed act or omission that it was simply following the customary practice of its trade or business. But the actual facts of the Hooper suit suggest that Judge Hand was employing a bit of creativity, and even sleight of hand, to put across a broader principle than the case warranted.