Liability of Hospitality Firms for Deaths On Premises: Recent Court Cases and Methods for Prevention
Proprietors and employees need to be prepared when deaths occur in hospital ity establishments. Lawsuits involving deaths-both homicides and accidents—are frequent. Innkeepers and restaurateurs are held to a standard of ordinary care, with innkeepers having around-the-clock responsibilities and restaurateurs having re sponsibility for much shorter periods of time. Water, fire, food, alcoholic beverages, and vehicles are among the most common causes of accidental deaths. The outcomes of some cases hinge upon what constitutes proximate cause of death. Wrongful death and survival claims are the bases for remedies in death cases. Practical measures for reducing the likelihood of deaths and ensuing legal problems pertain to security, accident prevention, policy adoption and implementation, record keeping, employee training, and insurance coverage.
The Trends in Dram Shop Laws and How They Affect the Hospitality Industry: Balancing Competing Policy Considerations of Tort Reform and Curbing Drunk Driving
This article outlines the history of and the current trends in dram shop legislation throughout the United States. It will be seen that the term "dram shop" law can have extremely divergent meanings from state to state. In part, this is because such laws are designed to address competing and difficult-to-reconcile public policies. On the one hand, there is the public interest in curbing the incidence and consequences of drunk driving, which is an argument in favor of increasing the liability of alcohol vendors and servers. On the other, there is the public interest in keeping insurance available and its costs under control, which indicates a policy of reducing the liability of those in the hospitality industry and thus decreasing their exposure (and, hence, the exposure of their insurance carriers) to insured risks. The purpose of this article is to explain these competing policies and to show how the states are currently balancing them in enacting or amending their dram shop laws. Those in the hospitality industry will then be better able to predict and, through informed participation in the legislative process, influence the direction of this important area of the law. Key Words: Dram shop laws, liquor liability, drunk driving, tort reform, public policy.
Modern approaches to female sterilization.
This article reviews the history of laparoscopic sterilization in the US from electrical coagulation to use of the Filshie clip. Although highly effective unipolar electrocoagulation was associated with a high rate of bowel burns secondary to accidental electric injury. Bipolar electrocoagulation cancelled out the effect of electric waves in and out of the instrument eliminating the potential for capacitation. The resulting burn is discrete and localized destroying only that part of tube within the grasp of the forceps. Electrosurgical complications can be averted through understanding of the principles of electrosurgery restriction of the use of unipolar coagulation to situations where it is safe and use of a bipolar system whenever possible. The spring-loaded Hulka clip and titanium Filshie clip are associated with high efficacy ease of use and minimal tube damage. Contraception failure must be considered as a complication of any sterilization method. The US Collaborative Review of Sterilization indicated that sterilization failures can occur 8-10 years after surgery and are more frequent in young women. The relative risk of pregnancy is lowest with unipolar coagulation (1.5) and highest with the Hulka clip (3.7). In the years ahead efforts will focus on increasing the safety of laparoscopic sterilization and refining occlusion techniques that carry with them the greatest likelihood of reversibility.