"The Timorous May Stay at Home"

More review for Torts today- and I think I'm starting to see the big picture.  Here it is: as more and more forms of injury become more readily identifiable and quantifiable through advances in medical technology (and as new types of injuries emerge through the globalization of society) courts become increasingly willing to make up new rules in order to allow injured parties to recover in order to be "whole" again.  And corrective justice is served.  There- a whole semester of Torts in one sentence.  

Grossly Oversimplified Timeline of Rulings in Tort Law (Negligence Regimes- as imagined at 3AM):

???BC-1600's- Oh, there was an accident and you're hurt?  Sucks to be you.

1600's-1800's- Well, maybe if your neighbor threw a log at your face he owes you some money.

... And if he tossed the log in front of you right as you were walking by and you trip, he owes you for that, too.

Mid-1800's- Barrels of flour don't normally fly out of windows and smack you in the head if everyone is being awesome at life.  They owe you money for that.

... but if you're beating dogs and accidentally poke out your friend's eye, that's cool.  I mean, it's cool to beat dogs.  We don't want to discourage that activity.

Early 1900's- Don't swing metal things at exposed electrical wires.  Sucks to be you.  Also don't get hit by trains.  That's totally your fault.  Also, don't break the law.  If you get hurt while you're breaking a law, it sucks to be you.  

Mid 1900's- Okay, maybe it's not ALWAYS your fault if you get hit by a train.  And maybe if you're breaking a law that isn't all that important you can still have money.

... but you shouldn't leave your barges unattended in the middle of a busy harbor.  Come on, guys.

1970's-1980's- You can't compare a person who has seizures to a defective product.  Nice try, though.  Also, if you're a hospital you shouldn't give people bags with severed legs in them.  You should know better.  You aren't liable for the emotional distress of a kidnapped baby's parents, though.  I mean, it's a big hospital.  Stuff happens.

1990's- Someone hurt you physically or mentally?  What do you want?  You want money?  Take it.  

Wait a second, not so fast- guy who jumped off a boat into one foot deep water.  Or you, people who want to sue school districts for failing to protect children in various and sundry ways.  And ESPECIALLY not you, people who were only economically hurt and have no physical and mental damage.  Sucks to be you guys.

2000's- You can prove that a doctor negligently lowered your chance of survival from a disease from 49% to 0%?  Enjoy 49% of your regular damages.  I mean, you would....  your estate will.

You went snowtubing and signed a waiver of liability and then broke your foot on their negligently maintained mountain?  Sure, sue away.  Waiver?  What waiver?

A catheter exploded inside your heart and caused catastrophic internal injury?  Well that sounds terrible but....Whoops.  Federally preempted.  Sorry.  Oh, you don't know what that means?  Well you can't sue because.... we said so just now.  Also something about Federalism.  

So- that's Tort law.  I do actually know the cases (and there are a lot more), but it's fun to generalize.  In between studying today, I went to the National Gallery (favorite museum?  possibly) because they were doing caroling in the rotunda.  They had a mandolin orchestra and programs with all the words to all the best Christmas songs printed out.  

Davia and Jeff singing Jingle Bells or something.

The rotunda is all decorated for Christmas- there are lots of trees everywhere.  It's difficult to get a picture of a three-dimensional hemispherical area, but it's very pretty, I promise. 

Then I won some more games of Battleship (superior strategy, clearly) and have been studying ever since...ish.  

Exam on Monday.  Yay.