Course Overview

Administrative Crap

Office Hours

— New time: Thursdays from 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Thursday’s Reading Assignment

— Has been pushed to next Tuesday

Recap

How to Read a Case

Before you begin:

  1. Connect with your purpose.
  2. Discern your immediate goal.

Internal logic and mechanics of a case

  1. Procedural posture
  2. Legal question(s)
  3. Relevant facts
  4. Holding
  5. Reasoning(s) behind the holding

Reasoning behind the holding

Three lines of reasoning

  1. Precedent binds us.
  2. Analogy to products liability falls apart.
  3. Supreme Court reasoning in analogous case applies here.

How to answer this kind of question

Course overview

What is torts?

Scope of tort law

What is tort law all about?

Tort Law Concerns

  1. Individual relationship of plaintiff and defendant
  2. Societal efficiency
  3. Distribution of resources and concentration of power

Course roadmap

On the course website under Course Content

Exam question

You are a judge in the state of Loyola tasked with writing the opinion of the court in the following case. No precedent binds you on the legal issues here, but it is customary to reference the reasoning of decisions from other jurisdictions when deciding an issue of first impression. The facts of the case are as follows:

Luna Adams found that her car’s brakes were squeaking. She brought the car in to be seen by her mechanic, Naomi Donald. Donald replaced the brake pads. A week later, Adams was driving when the brakes on her car failed, causing her to run off the road and crash into a tree. Adams sued Donald for personal injuries and property damages. The case went to a jury trial. Adams motioned for summary judgment, under the legal theory that when a car mechanic fixes a part of a car, that mechanic is strictly liable for all injuries proximately caused by that part of the car failing. The trial judge denied the motion, ruling that negligence, not strict liability, governed. The plaintiff appeals the denial of that motion.