In 2015, the American Museum of Tort Law opened its doors, making it the first and only museum dedicated to a practice area within the legal profession. Championed by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, the museum is a veritable personal injury house of horrors, meant to educate the public about all of the benefits of tort law and trial by jury. From exhibits on motor vehicle accidents and defective products to medical malpractice and environmental disasters, this museum has it all.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has created a whole new swath of tort claims, the museum has closed for a time, but its website is open, where visitors can take virtual tours and see and read about each case on display. Because the museum is now online, Richard L. Newman, its executive director, is interested in adding supplemental content in video form.
He’s looking for tort law scholars — professors, judges, practitioners — to give short presentations (filmed on Zoom) about the significance of the cases listed below.
- Brown v. Kendall (1850)
- Bryne v. Boadle (England, 1863)
- Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stout (1874)
- MacPherson v. Buick (1916)
- T.J. Hooper et al. v. Northern Barge Corp. et al (1932)
- U.S. v. Carroll Towing Co. (1947)
- Greenman v. Yuba Power Products (1963)
- Canterbury v. Spence (1972)
- Hoffman v. Jones (1973)
- Tarasoff v. Regents (1976)
- Daubert v. Merrell Dow (1993)
- Kline v. 1500 Massachusetts Avenue Apt. Corp. (1970)
- Donald v. United Klans of America (1987)
- McCormack v. Hankscraft Co., Inc. (1967)
- Carol Burnett v. National Enquirer, Inc. (1983)
- Galella v. Onassis (1973)
- Anderson v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (1996)
- Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company (1981)
- Liebeck v. McDonald’s (1994)
- Nader v. General Motors Corp. (1970)
- Cipollone v. Liggett Group, 1992 & Master Settlement Agreement (1998)
- United Novelty Co. v. Daniels (1949)
- Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corp. (1973)
Speakers in these supplemental videos will identify themselves by name and institution, state the name and date of the case, give a summary of the salient facts, and then give a brief explanation of why the case is significant.
If you’re interested in giving your expert assistance to the American Museum of Tort Law, please click here to get in touch with Richard Newman. Thanks!
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.