October 5, 2009

PL 301--Torts
In class today, Monday 10/5, we began by going over the use of precedent by both the majority and dissenting opinions in the Addy case, and talked about the relative merits of those two opinions. I went over two additional causation cases, Cyr v. Adamar,
2000 ME 110 and Walter v. Walmart, 2000 ME 63.

We then turned to Chapter 5 regarding damages. I distributed a handout giving parts of the Maine Wrongful Death statute, as well as the Maine Wrongful Birth statute. We went over the Maine law regarding the claim for loss of companionship. We will pick up Wednesday with the other question from the Exercises, the question of recovery for domestic partners. The assignment for Wednesday October 7 is first, to read over the handouts regarding the Maine law for wrongful death recovery for domestic partners. Then, in conjunction with the Wrongful Birth Statute, find in Westlaw and read the case of Thibeault v. Larson, 666 A2d 112 (Me. 1995), reading both the majority and dissenting opinions, and thinking about which one makes the most sense to you.