Sound the Alarm: Limitations of Liability in Alarm Service Contracts

Home and business owners increasingly rely on alarm systems to protect against theft and property damage. When a burglary or fire occurs and an alarm service customer discovers that the alarm company negligently failed to call the police or fire department, the customer understandably would expect redress for the company’s failure to provide its service. Many customers would be surprised, though, to discover that an alarm company’s liability is often contractually limited to a relatively token amount unrelated to the cost of the service, even when the alarm company is negligent. Some states view these limitations of liability as exculpatory clauses and determine their enforceability based on whether they are unconscionable or violate public policy. Other states view them as liquidated damages and apply a penalty test to determine their enforceability. This Note addresses the differences between these two approaches in the context of the unique remedy difficulties inherent in alarm service contracts. This Note then argues that the prevailing policy rationales for enforcing alarm service provisions that limit a party’s liability for its own negligence are misguided and advocates that these provisions should not be enforced as a matter of public policy

Can egalitarianism survive internationalization?

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EVALUATION OF THE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN RECOGNITION MEMORY USING STATE-TRACE ANALYSIS OF EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS

Episodic recognition memory experiments attempt to determine the processes that underlie recognition (Mandler, 1980). Currently, there is a debate whether episodic recognition memory involves separate components of familiarity and recollection (i.e., the Dual Process Model) or a single process which involves varying degrees of confidence based on familiarity (i.e., the Single Process Model). Recollection and familiarity differ in the type of information they provide and also the extent to which each influences confidence (Yonelinas, Dobbins, Szymanski, Dhaliwal, & King, 1996). Familiarity is specifically assumed to reflect the assessment of quantitative memory strength information. Recollection is believed to reflect a threshold retrieval process whereby qualitative information about a previous event is retrieved (Yonelinas, 2002). In this paper, the validity of the single and dual process models will be assessed by testing the assumptions of the models using electrophysiological data (ERPs) from a recognition experiment. Previous recognition tests have relied on the use of dissociation logic as evidence of separate processes. The dissociations which showed the strongest support for a dual process are based on the flawed logic that physical variables and psychological variables are linearly related, and differences between these variables can be attributed to different underlying processes. In order to evaluate the number of processes involved in recognition, this paper proposes the use of a non-parametric statistical approach that looks to determine the number of underlying processes that are needed to account for a given set of data without making prior assumptions of a single or dual process model. It is a general method based on the premise that two dependent variables will covary with each other to the extent that they are affected by the same independent variable (Bamber, 1979). The results of the state-trace analysis of the electrophysiological data provide support for a single process model of recognition.No embarg

Pluralism and Proceduralism

Cohen on Hampshire's take on Rawl

Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

We develop a performance evaluation approach in which a fund manager's skill is judged by the extent to which his investment decisions resemble the decisions of managers with distinguished performance records. The proposed performance measures are estimated more precisely than standard measures, because they use historical returns and holdings of many funds to evaluate the performance of a single fund. According to one of our measures, funds with significantly positive ability considerably outnumber funds with significantly negative ability at the end of our sample. Simulations demonstrate that our measures are particularly useful in ranking managers. In an application that relies on such ranking, we find only weak persistence in the performance of U.S. equity funds after accounting for momentum in stock returns.

"Minimalist Historical Materialism"

Cohen Examines G.A. Cohe

"A More Democratic Liberalism"

review of John Rawls' "Political Liberalism

"Maximizing Social Welfare or Institutionalizing Democratic Ideals?"

Cohen's Comments on Adam Przeworski's article "Could We Feed Everyone?

Re-exploration of vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap for vaginal reconstruction: Case report and review of the literature.

The vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous (VRAM) flap is a versatile and well-established reconstructive technique for many defects created as a result of colorectal and gynecologic extirpation. However, major re-operation in the pelvis following a VRAM flap reconstruction several months later is uncommon, and the safety and integrity of the VRAM flap in this setting has not been described. This case examines VRAM flap preservation during repeat exploratory laparotomy, and a unique view of the VRAM flap during interval exploration. We demonstrate an intact flap after lysis of adhesions with an audible Doppler signal, and maintenance of flap integrity in the postoperative period. This further substantiates its use as a durable rotational flap for perineal tissue defects