Defense is for newsworthiness by media fraud is

defense is for newsworthiness by media
 fraud is intentional tort and others can receive punitive in addition to
compensatory damages
Cases:
 Otis Engineering Corp V. Clark:
o Matheson worked for Otis Corp and would drink on the job. Otis told him
to go home one day and asked Matheson if he could make it home.
Matheson said yes, but on the way home got in an accident and killed the
wife of Clark.
o Clark sued Otis for wrongful death action
o District court dismissed suit, saying Matheson was not acting in scope of
employment at time of accident
o case goes to Intermediate court where the court believed because of the
employee’s state, the employer had certain responsibility over its
employee. It should have foreseen this kind of accident to happen
o Clark won case
 Brown v. Philadelphia college of osteopathic medicine
o Mrs. Brown and baby diagnosed with syphilis
o Mrs. Brown asks Mr. brown if he’s been cheating. He says yes. Leads to
stress in marriage.
o Mrs. Brown sues hospital for negligence.
o Mrs. Brown wins case
o ^ was actually reversed in favor of PCOM
 Cole v. St. of LA dept of public safety and corrections
o Cole was an officer participating in an “angry crowd exercise” as an
inmate for another officer group acting as guards
o Cole was hit with non padded batons and only had on a helmet, where in
previous instances officers used padded batons and had the “inmates” in
protective padding
o Cole sued for battery, courts affirmed all the way up - even though the
acts of the employees were not vicious, they were harmful and done with
intent
 GTE Southwest v. Bruce
o Bruce and two other employees sued GTE for emotional distress caused
by their supervisor

o Employees had continuously made reports, with no action from GTE
o Trial court found for employees, GTE appealed
o affirmed
 Milliken v Jacono
o Defendant sold house to plaintiff without telling them that a murder-
suicide happened there, so plaintiff sued saying the failure to disclose
breached Real Estate Disclosure law and was common fraud
o Defendant filed MSJ and was granted, plaintiff appealed
o Court affirmed trial court’s decision to grant MSJ
 Speakers of Sport Inc, v Proserv Inc
o Both are sports agent firms, player started at Speakers but left for Proserv
after he was told he would make more
o After a year it was not true and player left Proserv
o Speakers sued Proserv stating that their promise of endorsements made
the player leave Speakers, trial court found for Proserv, Speakers
appealed
o Court affirmed, stated only unlawful means would by Proserv have made
Speakers won
Unit 5: Product Liability
 Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) = Set of rules created by people that were not
members of congress or state legislatures.