The Future of Faithless Electors and the National Popular Vote Compact: Part Two in a Two-Part Series

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

In this second of a two-part series of columns about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the “faithless elector cases, Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar describes some good news that we may glean from those cases. Specifically, Amar points out that states have many ways of reducing elector faithlessness, and he lists three ways in which the Court’s decision paves the way for advances in the National Popular Vote (NPV) Interstate Compact movement.

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Impoverishing Women: Supreme Court Upholds Trump Administration’s Religious and Moral Exemptions to Contraceptive Mandate

JOANNA L. GROSSMAN

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the Trump administration’s religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Grossman provides a brief history of the conflict over the growing politicization of contraception in the United States and argues that the exemptions at issue in this case should never have been promulgated in the first place because they have no support in science or public policy.

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Malone v. Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Docket: 19-3880

Opinion Date: July 15, 2020

Judge: Guy

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Personal Injury, Products Liability

Malone was adjusting the blade on his Craftsman table saw when the guard came off, causing injury to his fingers. Malone was later notified of a safety recall on the saw. Malone filed suit in an Ohio state court, against several Sears and Craftsman entities and Rexon, a Taiwanese company. Rexon removed the case to a federal district court, citing diversity jurisdiction, then moved to dismiss, arguing that the district court lacked personal jurisdiction. Rexon admitted that it manufactured the saw in question and conceded, for the purpose of its motion, that it had purposefully availed itself of the benefits and protections offered by the State of Ohio. The district court dismissed the case. The Sixth Circuit vacated and remanded. The court noted that the injury occurred in Ohio and that Rexon has a “high volume of business activity” in Ohio, so Malone “could plausibly show, with additional discovery, that Rexon derived 'substantial revenue’ from table saw sales in Ohio.” Jurisdictional discovery is necessary to determine whether Rexon had sufficient contacts with the state to satisfy due process.

Russell v. Anderson

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Docket: 19-2612

Opinion Date: July 15, 2020

Judge: William Duane Benton

Areas of Law: Personal Injury

Plaintiff filed suit against defendant for negligently crossing the highway's center line and sideswiping plaintiff's motorcycle. After the jury awarded plaintiff $7,000, the district court denied plaintiff's motion for a new trial on damages. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court did not plainly err by giving three comments to the jury; the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence and bears a reasonable relationship to the damages proved; the district court's erroneous grant of judgment on the loss-of-earning capacity claim was harmless; and the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding cross-examination of the sheriff where the questioning would have been misleading, could have led to jury confusion, and was cumulative.

Tesoriero v. Carnival Corp.

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Docket: 18-11638

Opinion Date: July 14, 2020

Judge: Grant

Areas of Law: Personal Injury

After plaintiff sat on a vanity chair in her Carnival Cruise ship and it collapsed, she filed suit against Carnival, alleging that it had failed to inspect and maintain the cabin furniture (or else warn her of the danger the chair posed). The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for Carnival, holding that plaintiff failed to establish that Carnival had actual or constructive notice that the chair was dangerous. Unlike the district court, the court declined to consider whether res ipsa loquitor applies in this case. The court explained that, even if it does, the doctrine cannot cure a defect in notice. Furthermore, because plaintiff has not shown that Carnival committed sanctionable spoliation of evidence, her case is not saved through an adverse inference sanction.

Butts v. Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development

Court: Alaska Supreme Court

Docket: S-17283

Opinion Date: July 10, 2020

Judge: Joel H. Bolger

Areas of Law: Government & Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

Office worker Sallyanne Butts (f/k/a Decastro) fell from her chair onto her hands and left knee. She initially suffered left knee symptoms and later developed right knee problems and lower back pain that she alleged arose from the fall. She argued the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Board erred when it performed its presumption analysis and when it awarded compensation for her left knee and back for only a limited period of time following the accident. The Alaska Supreme Court concluded: the Board appropriately considered the knee injuries and the back injury as distinct injuries and applied the presumption analysis accordingly; that the Board properly relied on the conflicting medical evidence to make its own legal decision about which of Butts’s conditions were compensable; and that the Board was not required to award compensation for knee replacement surgeries performed five years after the accident. The Court therefore affirmed the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Appeals Commission’s decision affirming the Board.

Leigh v. Alaska Children's Services

Court: Alaska Supreme Court

Docket: S-17247

Opinion Date: July 10, 2020

Judge: Joel H. Bolger

Areas of Law: Government & Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

Allison Leigh broke her ankle when she slipped and fell in her employer’s icy parking lot. Following surgery she had a complicated recovery. Her employer began to controvert benefits related to the ankle about nine months after the injury. Three years after the injury, her employer requested that she sign a release allowing it to access all of her mental health records for the preceding 19 years because of her pain complaints. Leigh asked for a protective order from the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Board. The Board’s designee granted the protective order, and the employer appealed that decision to the Board. A Board panel reversed the designee’s decision. Leigh petitioned the Alaska Workers’ Compensation Appeals Commission for review, but the Commission declined. The Alaska granted Leigh's petition for review and found that the statute permitted an employer to access the mental health records of employees when it was relevant to the claim, even if the employee did not make a claim related to a mental health condition. This matter was remanded back to the Board for further proceedings to consider reasonable limits on the release at issue here.

Savaikie v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

Court: California Courts of Appeal

Docket: B291120(Second Appellate District)

Opinion Date: July 16, 2020

Judge: Stratton

Areas of Law: Personal Injury

The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of Kaiser in an action brought by plaintiffs, alleging that Kaiser was vicariously liable for a driver who hit and killed plaintiffs' son. The driver drove to an assisted living facility in his own vehicle and provided pet therapy to a Kaiser patient. The court held that the facts do not support a reasonable inference that Kaiser expressly or implied required the driver to use his own vehicle as a condition of his volunteer work. In this case, the evidence shows that Kaiser permitted pet therapy volunteers to select the means of transportation for themselves and their animals, assigned the therapists to provide therapy at a variety of locations, checked the liability insurance of all Kaiser volunteers who either provided a driver's license or used their own vehicles, had at one time offered to reimburse the driver for his mileage, and had an "arrangement" with the driver that he would use his own vehicle. The court also held that the driver's use of his personal vehicle did not provide an incidental benefit to Kaiser; the driver did not use a special mode of transportation; and the coming and going rule applies to the driver's drive.

Arvidson v. Liberty Northwest Ins. Corp.

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Docket: S066746

Opinion Date: July 16, 2020

Judge: Christopher L. Garrett

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Government & Administrative Law, Insurance Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

After claimant Danny Arvidson received an award of permanent total disability, insurer Liberty Northwest Insurance Corporation requested a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ) to review the award. The ALJ dismissed insurer’s hearing request as time-barred. The question on review before the Oregon Supreme Court was whether that dismissal entitled claimant to attorney fees under ORS 656.382(2), which provided that, if an insurer initiates review of a compensation award and the reviewing body “finds that ... all or part of the compensation awarded ... should not be reduced or disallowed,” the insurer shall pay the claimant’s attorney a “reasonable attorney fee.” The ALJ determined that the statute applied to the dismissal of insurer’s claim and awarded fees to claimant. The Workers’ Compensation Board reached a different conclusion and reversed that decision. The Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion. The Oregon Supreme Court reversed, finding the ALJ correctly determined that his dismissal of insurer’s request for hearing entitled claimant to attorney fees. The board erred in concluding otherwise.