Book contents
- Public Nuisance
- Public Nuisance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Historical Context of Private and Public Nuisance at Law and Equity
- 2 Shifting Mass Tort Theories in the 1990s and the Judicial Resistance to the Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
- 3 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine
- 4 Litigating Public Nuisance Claims
- 5 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine: Defenses
- 6 Expanding Public Nuisance
- 7 Environmental Contamination, PCBs, and Climate Change as Public Nuisance Harms
- 8 Opioids as Public Nuisance Health and Welfare Harm
- 9 Firearms Violence as a Public Nuisance
- 10 E-Cigarettes and Vaping as a Public Nuisance Harm
- 11 Evaluating the Competing Arguments Regarding the Contemporary Use of Public Nuisance in Mass Tort Litigation
- Conclusion
- Index
2 - Shifting Mass Tort Theories in the 1990s and the Judicial Resistance to the Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2023
- Public Nuisance
- Public Nuisance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Historical Context of Private and Public Nuisance at Law and Equity
- 2 Shifting Mass Tort Theories in the 1990s and the Judicial Resistance to the Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
- 3 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine
- 4 Litigating Public Nuisance Claims
- 5 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine: Defenses
- 6 Expanding Public Nuisance
- 7 Environmental Contamination, PCBs, and Climate Change as Public Nuisance Harms
- 8 Opioids as Public Nuisance Health and Welfare Harm
- 9 Firearms Violence as a Public Nuisance
- 10 E-Cigarettes and Vaping as a Public Nuisance Harm
- 11 Evaluating the Competing Arguments Regarding the Contemporary Use of Public Nuisance in Mass Tort Litigation
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Chapter 2 traces the historical development of mass tort litigation from the 1970s through the 1990s, documenting plaintiffs attorneys initial unsuccessful attempts in the 1990s to extend public nuisance theory to mass tort products and marketing litigation. During this initial foray into public nuisance theory, courts instead universally defaulted to a narrow view of nuisance grounded in property law. In cases involving tobacoo, asbestos, lead paint, and gun litigation courts declined to accept plaintiffs public nusiance claims, refusing invitations to expand a claim for public nuisance beyond its grounding in real property concepts. Courts contended that these mass tort harms sounded in causes of action for traditional products liability, not public nuisance, and that public nuisance law had never been applied to products cases. Courts noted the deleterious effects of accepting an expanded concept of public nuisance, which would allow any plaintiff to describe a harm from a lawful product as producing a public nuisance. Such a concept would invite unlimited liability for manufacturers of legal products.
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- Information
- Public NuisanceThe New Mass Tort Frontier, pp. 26 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023