Remedies Syllabus - archive

Remedies    Spring 2015     
updated
July 4, 2015


3 credits


Prof. George W. Conk
gconk@law.fordham.edu 
Room 8-122
Course Blog: Torts Today 


Office hours by appointment on the hour and half hour.  Please make appointments by email.
Attendance is required.  If you are unable to attend class please drop me a note with brief explanation before class.

I will generally make assignments of discussion leaders for each class 6  days before the class meeting.   The assignments will usually be groups of four, in alphabetical order, starting week two.
Accountability:  final exam (take-home - 48 hours) OR term paper (15 + pp well supported) or major Writing Requirement (25 pp.)   Class participation will be 20% of the grade.

Upperclass writing requirement: 
Notice of intent must be filed with Registrar within two weeks of start of semester  Topics must be approved by me in advance of filing.
5:00 PM - outlines due
5:00 PM - rough drafts due
5:00 PM - final papers due

Term papers (if elected in lieu of exam)

Term paper topic proposals due:    5:00 PM
Outline  or abstract due:   5:00 PM
Final paper due:  



I will make assignments of discussion leaders for each class 6 or 7 days before the class meeting.

spring 2014 exam and best answer

Materials

Recommended concise hornbook: 
Weaver, et al., Principles of Remedies Law (West) Second Edition 2011

There are several Pages on Torts Today that we will use: School Integration,   BP Deepwater Horizon Spill, and DePuy ASR Hip Implant Settlement.


Casebook: 
Weaver, et al. Remedies, Third Edition (West) 
(all chapter references are to Weaver, 3rd edition)
Note I do not use the casebook Problems or  Exercises - unless specified.


Syllabus  (subject to in-course amendment)


a unit is two 1 hour 20 minute classes unless otherwise specified

Readings are required unless specified as background, in which case they are recommended.  Discussion leaders are expected to read the background materials.

Unit 1  (3 classes

Introduction to Equitable Remedies

When judges speak of equal protection - For whom do they speak (read post and linked materials)

Chapter 2  - Equity and Equitable Remedies 
Introduction, equitable remedies, equitable defenses, trial by jury [pp. 8-89]

Discussion slides - Ch. 2, Part 1, Equity and Equitable Remedies
Discussion slides - Ch. 2, Part 2, Equity and Equitable Remedies

Respecting the Seventh Amendment - right to jury trial - Joanne Doroshow

Chapter 3 - Enforcement of Equitable Decrees 
Discussion slides - Part 1, Chapter 3
Discussion slides - Part 2, Chapter 3 Civil and criminal contempt, collateral challenges - the duty to obey [pp. 91 - 166] (Read Mayberry problem at 91)
Discussion slides - Judicial Contempt in Alabama?

Federal Rules of Crim. Proc. Rule. 42 

Background:
* M.L. King, Jr. on Meet the Press (1965) discussing civil disobedience
*In Selma - the movie - King is just one of many heroes
*Rev. M.L. King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963) 
*A Call for Unity by Birmingham Clergymen 
An appeal for law and order and common sense (1963)
Stavis: A Century of Struggle for Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi (Miss. L. rev. 1987)

Statutory and Constitutional landmarks

January 23, 1964 Amendment XXIV ratified (bans poll tax)

July 2, 1964 - Civil Rights Act of 1964

August 6, 1965 -  Voting Rights Act of 1965

Unit 2  Injunctions (2 classes)

Chapter 4 - Injunctions 

Discussion slides: Ch. 4 - Injunctions
Deep background: In Re Debs (1894) (discussion leaders should read)

Order - Strawser v. Strange and Davis (D. AL. 2015) Standards for issuance 
Provisional Relief ( pp. 170- 205)
Hearing requirement, persons bound, notice, bond requirement (pp. 206-255)

Permanent Injunctions (pp. 257 - 271)

Framing the injunction  (pp. 271 - 293)

Judicial review of speech limitations: McCullen v. Coakley (U.S. 2014) Commentary: Richard Posner/Slate


Unit 3 -Injunctions Against Litigation; Appeals of Injunction Rulings
and Limits of Judicial Review of Administrative Enforcement Actions

Dombrowski v. Pfister (U.S. 1965) - bad faith prosecution
Younger v. Harris (U.S. 1971) - deference to the states
Ex parte State of Alabama and John Enslen, Probate Judge - Alabama Supreme Court Orders Halt to  Same-sex marriage Licenses

*Appeals of Injunction Rulings
(pp. 316 - 326) (reading only)

Judicial review of agency enforcement actions

Slides S.EC. v. Citigroup Global Markets

S..E.C. v. Citigroup Global Markets (2d Cir. 2012)

S.E.C.v. Citigroup Global Markets - 2d Circuit (2014)
SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets

Impact of Judge Rakoff's rejection of the settlement

* Mary Jo White/SEC - Employing the full arsenal (admissions policy)

Briefs on behalf of Judge Rakoff - read post and amicus briefs of Harvey Pitt and Securities scholars

* Commentary on the Second Circuit ruling


* James B. Stewart, N.Y. Times - a dissenting opinion 


* Kevin LaCroix - D&O Diary





Unit 4 (two classes)


The Structural Injunction - Public School Integration

Race in America
 Summer of '64 - Mississippi Freedom Summer
Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, by David Margolick  Trailer for book
Segregation in suburbia: Levittown's legacy*
Black at Stuyvesant High School*
How the left's embrace of busing hurt the cause of integration - Slate*

Desegregation and equal education remedies- a timeline: 

Brown II  (1955) "all deliberate speed."
Jefferson County: 5th Circuit, en banc (1967) "affirmative action"
Intra-district busing approved - Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenberg (1971)
14th Amendment Equal protection does not require equal funding of schools - Rodriguez v. San Antonio (1973)
Detroit: the City-suburb barrier stands  - Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
"Thorough and efficient education" requires equitable spending - Abbott v.Burke (NJ 1985)
The magnet district rejected - Kansas City - Missouri v. Jenkins (1996)
Seattle:  voluntary, race conscious integration barred - Parents Involved (2007)
Washington Legislature held in contempt of court for failure to equitably fund public schools (2014)

All reading is on the School Integration page of Torts Today

All required reading is marked below with an asterisk *

Read:

*Brown v. Board of Education II*  "with all deliberate speed"
*Jefferson County (1967)  5th Circuit * en banc opinion and decree "affirmative action" "Courts shall give great weight to DHEW Guidelines"
*Griffin Bell dissent*

Busing
*Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg County (1971)
Discussion slides: Intro and Jefferson County
Discussion slides - Swann

Video: The Battle for Busing - Retro Report  (10 minutes)
NY Times - related article: text
Reporter's Notebook - C. Drummond Ayres

Detroit
*Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Motown the musical
Detroit 1967
GM, Detroit, and the Decline of the Black Middle Class - NY Times
Dead End Street - Lou Rawls
NBC News Detroit 1967 52 minutes

Background: The Federal role in housing segregation: Economic Policy Institute amicus brief in Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project

*Missouri v. Jenkins  (1996)   [excerpted in the casebook at p. 326.] Listen to NPR: *Kansas City's Failed Schools
Count Basie and the Kansas City 7

*The Making of FergusonEconomic Policy Institute
*How School Segregation Divides Ferguson — and the United States - NYTimes.com

Decades of public and private housing discrimination made St. Louis one of the most racially segregated metropolitan areas in the country. A network of school district boundaries has, to this day, divided students in racially separate schools as effectively as any Jim Crow law.


Seattle & Louisville
Discussion slides
*Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. (2007) 

* Ta-Nehisi Coates  The Case for Reparations
Historians amicus brief

Are race conscious remedies wrong? What about the Texas Ten percent plan?


Unit * Restitution

Moses v. Macferlan, 97 Eng. Rep. 676 (Kings Bench 1760)


Unit 6 Attorneys Fees

Discussion slides
Chapter 7, Section F Attorneys Fees 
The American Rule and Counsel fees under fee shifting statutes
Casebook: (pp. 902 - 925)
Prevailing party fee award - Alaska marriage case

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - FRCP 54 Judgments, Costs*
Model Rules of Professional Conduct 1.5*

42 U.S.C. 1988 - proceedings in vindication of civil rights*
42 U.S.C. 1981A - Damages in case of intentional employment discrimination*

The catalyst theory
Compare Buckhannon Board & Care Home v. West Virginia, 532 U.S. 598 (2001) with Mason v. City of Hoboken , 196 N.J. 51 (2008)

Antitrust: NCAA v. O'Bannon
O'Bannon discussion slides

Patent Act Fee awards: What they Really Look Like (2014)

Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. 2412*

Contingent fees in personal injury cases - New York

New Jersey - allowance of Attorneys' Fees - R. 4:42-9; Contingent fees in personal injury cases: R. 1:21-9


Court-awarded fees and enhanced contingent fees. Walker v. Guiffre, NJ 2011


Congressional Research Service Attorneys Fee Awards by Federal Courts and Agencies (2008)

Unit 7  Chapter 7 - Damage Remedies

slides - Ch 7, Damages Remedies
slides - Economic loss and death damages - New York State

General Damage Principles ( casebook 579 - 633)


Limits of market measures
Restatement 2d, Torts, Section 911 - Value

Amorita - an Undying Love
Verified complaint

Background:
Report - economic losses - personal injury -Mary Smith - NJ
Report - economic losses - personal injury- Daniel Eckerd - NY
Report - Daniel Jones - economic losses wrongful death - NY

Structured judgments and settlements in New York

CPLR 50A  CPLR 50B
VIDEO explaining operation of CPLR regarding present value

Mass Tort Claims - crafting remedial structures

Unit 8 
A Mass Product Liability Settlement

ASR DePuy Hip Implant Cases  

slides: key elements of the DePuy ASR Product Liability Settlement
Round 2 Settlement Proposal - Childers, Schlueter & Smith, LLC

* Review DePuy ASR page on Torts Today and peruse 
J&J Agrees to pay $420 Million More - Bloomberg

* U.S. ASR Hip settlement - official site

discussion slides Aggregate settlements and the attorney client relationship

Does one size fit all?  Redish and Karaba
Are MDL aggregate settlements unconstitutional denials of due process?

Unit 9 (2 weeks)
The BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill

discussion slides - part 1


ALI Restatement - Economic Loss - draft black letter rules 1 -13*

Req'd reading: items with *

These and other materials are on BP page of Torts Today

First section - the OPA and the GCCF
*Oil Pollution Act of 1990 - (OPA) key provisions

* Liability under the OPA - Judge Carl Barbier, In re Deepwater Horizon,  808 F.Supp.2d 943, 966 (August 26, 2011)
"The Court notes that OPA does not expressly require “proximate cause,” but rather only that the loss is “due to” or “resulting from” the oil spill. While the Court need not define the precise contours of OPA causation at this time, it is worth noting that during oral argument both counsel for BP and the PSC conceded that OPA causation may lie somewhere between traditional “proximate cause” and simple “but for” causation."

*Elements of Liability 33 USC 2702


Statutory Damages under the OPA

Scope of Liability

*Prof. John Goldberg  Memo to BP claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg  re extent of BP's civil liability for damages


GCCF - Overall Status Report, February 10, 2012


Second section - the MDL and the Deepwater Horizon Settlement
MDL: Eastern District of Louisiana: 2:10-md-02179-CJB-SS
Hon. Carl Barbier, D.J.
Orders, minutes & entries - Eastern District web site

discussion slides - introduction to BP Settlement

*Deepwater Horizon Economic Settlement  peruse settlement website
* Economic loss zones
* Exhibit 4B Causation Requirements for Businesses


*Post-remand order - proving causation of damages 12/24/13
 Judge Barbier, fundamentally rejecting BP's challenges.


Issacharoff and Rave, The BP Oil Spill Settlement and the Paradox of Public Litigation, 74 La. L. Rev. 397 (2014) full text at SSRN

Third section - BP's attack on the settlement

Article III, Constitution of the U.S.A.

Rule 23, FRCP

In re Deepwater Horizon - 5th Circuit - rejecting BP challenge to class action approval on damages - March 3, 2014

* In Re Deepwater Horizon Opinion of January 10, 2014, 739 F.3d 790 (5 Cir)

Affirming (2-1) order of Judge Barbier approving economic and property damage -class action settlement

In Re Deepwater Horizon 732 F 3d 526 (5 Cir.) - Opinion and partial remand order on calculation of losses, interpreting Business Economic Loss (10/2/2013)
 *Exhibit 4C Business Economic Losses

BP Petition for Certification
Plaintiff class members  Brief in Opposition

ScotusBlog BP Exploration v. Lake Eugenie Page

Fourth section Penalty Phase
Phase 1 trial - findings of fact and conclusions of law (discussion leaders read. Others scan)
*Factors: 33 U.S.C. 1321(b) (8)Pre-trial Statement of U.S. on "most appropriate penalty"
Reply memo by BP and Anadarko 12/19/2014

Fifth section - Managerial Judging and Counsel fees

Counsel fees
* BP Plaintiffs Steering Committee: PSC Status Report and Memorandum in Support of Motion to Establish a Reserve Fund
Order approving settlement - see page 33 - counsel fees.


Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - FRCP 54 Judgments, Costs*
Model Rules of Professional Conduct 1.5*
Contingent fees in personal injury cases - New York
New NY Rule - Option regarding costs of litigation
New Jersey - allowance of Attorneys' Fees - R. 4:42-9; Contingent fees in personal injury cases: R. 1:21-9


Court-awarded fees and enhanced contingent fees. Walker v. Guiffre, NJ 2011

Managerial Judging - Hellerstein, Henderson & Twerski




Unit 10
Special Medical Benefits


The NFL Concussion Settlement
discussion slides
* Sean Morey - objection
This settlement is a sell-out Paul D. Anderson

* Plaintiffs class counsel Memorandum of Law in Support of Settlement

* Brain injury Association - Motion for leave to intervene as amicus

Class action complaint of Turner and Wooden, January 6, 2014

Medical Monitoring
Metro North v. Buckley, 521 U.S. 424 (1997)

Caronia v. Philip Morris (N.Y. 2014)
Donovan v. Philip Morris (Mass. 2009)

BP Gulf Oil Spill
Medical Benefits Settlement  Deepwater Horizon Medical Benefits claims Administrator
Order and Reasons and Order and Judgment 


World Trade Center Health Program

WTC Clinical Center of Excellence















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