University of Dayton

PHL 313

CHAPTER 9

Multiple-Choice Questions

1)The introduction to Chapter 9 argues that tort liability is influenced by the fact that when something goes wrong, people want to:

1. 1. Blame someone
   2. Harm the wrongdoer
   3. Help the injured
   4. Defend the injured

2. John Nesmith argues that reason is often not as strong as:
   1. Passion
   2. Money
   3. Love
   4. Fear

3. Huber discusses “the Founders,” meaning:
   1. The Founding Fathers
   2. The first moral theorists
   3. The founders of modern tort law
   4. The original theorists of deep ecology

4. Product liability problems are vexing in part because they have a huge impact on the costs of:
   1. Insurance for producers
   2. Insurance for attorneys
   3. Insurance for doctors
   4. A college education

5. Modic argues that “the first major crisis in the tort law/auto insurance system arose in the 1970s” with the proposal for a kind of auto insurance known as:
   1. Full coverage
   2. Limited tort
   3. No-fault
   4. UM/UIM

6. A crucial case for Huber is the defective Shopsmith in:
   1. Posner
   2. Calabresi
   3. Prosser
   4. Greenman

7. The tort law-liability insurance system started going sour, some believe, with the massive increase, following World War II, in:

1. Chemical production
2. Nuclear power
3. Automobile ownership
4. Lawsuits

8. Thomson considers this rule: liability is to be shared between the actual harm-causer and anyone else who acted:
   1. Defensively
   2. Reasonably
   3. Justly
   4. Negligently

9. Fairlie argues that the competitiveness of the American economy, as well as the legal system and its judicial philosophy, is threatened by:
   1. Tort law
   2. Business ethics
   3. Bribery
   4. Insurance

10. Burger argues that our society is drowning in:
    1. Luxury goods
    2. Financial dominance
    3. Litigation
    4. Immorality

11. According to John Nesmith’s article, David Ropeik, of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, believes the greatest risk to Americans is:
    1. Automobiles.
    2. Handguns
    3. Dirty indoor air
    4. Obesity

12. Nesmith points out that we do not normally fear something more if:
    1. It can kill us suddenly.
    2. We are not in control of it.
    3. It is manmade.
    4. It is voluntary rather than imposed.

13. According to Dowie, Ford did not change the design of the Pinto’s fuel tank because:
    1. They did not believe it was dangerous.
    2. They performed a cost-benefit analysis that showed no financial benefit in doing so.
    3. They performed an engineering analysis that showed there was no way to do so.
    4. They did not know how to create a safer fuel tank.

14. Werhane’s main point about the Pinto case is that:
    1. Ford was completely innocent of wrongdoing.

1. 2. Ford was completely responsible for the deaths caused by Pintos.
   3. A powerful narrative like Dowie’s article can skew our perception of the facts.
   4. A powerful narrative like Dowie’s article can bring the truth to a wider audience.

15. Sullivan’s article explores the idea that “fine print” in an agreement:
    1. Is not a contract
    2. Is not necessary to protect companies
    3. Is for the consumer’s own benefit
    4. Is an example of freedom of speech

True/False Questions

1. Huber argues that tort liability has in effect created a new kind of tax on almost every product we buy in America.

2. Modic hopes that Congress will pass a cap on damage amounts in certain kinds of tort suits.

3. The relationship between causation and liability is a simple issue, with no complexity.

4. Fairlie thinks that Americans ought to have a much greater “fear of living” than they presently do; Americans, he argues, must become more “risk averse.”

5. Justice Burger holds the legal profession responsible for the expensive mess that liability and the torts system have become in contemporary America.

6. Dowie explains that Ford did the morally responsible thing when they immediately recalled the dangerous Pinto.

7. The Rashomon effect refers to the story (and name) of the famous Iroquois chief who was tossed from a waterfall when defeated in battle near Ithaca, New York.

8. Like Dowie, Werhane studied Ford to show how that company could “do the right thing” despite the enormous expense involved.

9. Thomson argues that freedom of action is the only thing we value.

10. Nesmith points out that many of our fears are irrational, and that this leads society to waste huge sums of money preventing or avoiding risks that we do not substantially incur.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

1. A central example of risk calculation and

liability gone wrong examined by two thinkers in this chapter is the                                     .