TORTS - DUTY BASED ON CONTRACT-MEASURE OF RECOVERY WHERE TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBER SUES FOR SPECIAL DAMAGES

Plaintiff, a telephone subscriber, alleged that the defendant telephone company negligently severed the telephone connection between the plaintiff\u27s house and defendant\u27s central operating station and negligently failed to give plaintiff notice of the disconnection; that as a result, the plaintiff was delayed in notifying the fire department of an outbreak of fire on his property; and that the property was thereby destroyed. Plaintiff sought to recover damages for the resulting injury to his property. Held, defendant\u27s duty to use due care was an implied term of the contract, and special damages growing out of a breach of such a duty could not be recovered because they were not within the reasonable contemplation of the parties in making the contract. Buskey v. New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., (N. H. 1941) 23 A. (2d) 367

CONTRACTS-RELEASE-MISREPRESENTATION BY RELEASOR\u27S ATTORNEY- AVOIDANCE BY RELEASOR FOR UNILATERAL MISTAKE AS TO CONTENTS

Under the objective theory of mutual assent, which bases the imposition of contractual obligations on the expressed intent of the parties, rather than on a subjective meeting of their minds, the law has generally granted relief to the signer of a contract who is under a misapprehension as to its contents only where he can show that the mistake was made without negligence on his part. The theory of affording relief in such a case apparently is that the instrument does not really represent the expression of the signer\u27s intent, and the contract is, therefore, void at its inception. In view of the usual catagorical statements of the general theory of objective assent, such as, not assent, but what the other party is justified in regarding as assent, is essential, the logic of the cases allowing relief for unilateral mistake as to the contents of the writing seems somewhat strained, unless it is realized that a reasonable- man standard of objectivity is being used. This is demonstrated by the emphasis in these cases on the negligence of the signer, which precludes him from obtaining relief. Thus, in determining the standard of care to which a signer of a contract is to be held, it has been repeatedly decided that a literate person must read the contract himself, and that a person who is illiterate must get someone to read or explain it to him. Indeed, it has sometimes been held that such negligence will prevent the releasor from avoiding the release even where there has been fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the releasee

FUTURE INTERESTS-POWER OF TERMINATION-RESTRAINT ON ALIENATION- MERGER OF THE POWER OF TERMINATION WITH THE FEE SIMPLE SUBJECT TO A CONDITION SUBSEQUENT

A conveyed two tracts of land to B, her daughter, by two deeds, reserving a life estate in each tract and restraining, by condition subsequent, alienation of them in any manner, for five years in one deed, and for twelve years in the second. In less than five years and before the restrictions were violated, A died and B was adjudged her sole and only heir at law. Thereafter B conveyed the land by quit claim deed to the defendant, her husband. B died a month later, leaving a will, by which she devised and bequeathed all her property to the defendant. The heirs of B were ad judged to be eight aunts and uncles, who are the plaintiffs here, and the defendant. Plaintiffs bring this action against the defendant to quiet title and obtain an accounting for rents and partition of the realty; they ask that each of the plaintiffs be decreed owner of an undivided one-sixteenth of the land and the defendant of an undivided one-half. Held, the restraint on alienation imposed by A was valid as being reasonably necessary to protect A\u27s life estate; it was a condition subsequent to the grant to B, leaving a power of termination in A, which on A\u27s death passed to B as A\u27s sole heir, and ceased to exist because of the union in B of the power to enforce the restraint and the interest so restrained; title was, therefore, quieted in the defendant. Watson v. Dalton, (Neb. 1945) 18 N.W. (2d) 658

System hazards in managing laboratory test requests and results in primary care: medical protection database analysis and conceptual model

Objectives To analyse a medical protection organisation's database to identify hazards related to general practice systems for ordering laboratory tests, managing test results and communicating test result outcomes to patients. To integrate these data with other published evidence sources to inform design of a systems-based conceptual model of related hazards. Design A retrospective database analysis. Setting General practices in the UK and Ireland. Participants 778 UK and Ireland general practices participating in a medical protection organisation's clinical risk self-assessment (CRSA) programme from January 2008 to December 2014. Main outcome measures Proportion of practices with system risks; categorisation of identified hazards; most frequently occurring hazards; development of a conceptual model of hazards; and potential impacts on health, well-being and organisational performance. Results CRSA visits were undertaken to 778 UK and Ireland general practices of which a range of systems hazards were recorded across the laboratory test ordering and results management systems in 647 practices (83.2%). A total of 45 discrete hazard categories were identified with a mean of 3.6 per practice (SD=1.94). The most frequently occurring hazard was the inadequate process for matching test requests and results received (n=350, 54.1%). Of the 1604 instances where hazards were recorded, the most frequent was at the ‘postanalytical test stage’ (n=702, 43.8%), followed closely by ‘communication outcomes issues’ (n=628, 39.1%). Conclusions Based on arguably the largest data set currently available on the subject matter, our study findings shed new light on the scale and nature of hazards related to test results handling systems, which can inform future efforts to research and improve the design and reliability of these systems

Course Delivery: Online, Hybrid, Service and Experiential Learning Possibilities (New for 2018)

The leading barometers of online learning such as the Online Report Card (available at https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/read/online-report-card-tracking-online-education-united-states-2015/) indicate that over one in four higher education students now take distance courses and the increase in online enrollments is outpacing overall higher education enrollments. Busy life schedules, tight budgets, established career paths, advances in technology and the desire to reach ever wider, more diverse student bodies are some of the factors driving the growth. Students have differing needs and preferences and some disciplines’ training requirements cannot be met through online learning. In our Conflict Resolution Studies Department at Nova Southeastern University, we have been offering the whole range of course delivery modes; online, residential and hybrids driven by the desire to meet student needs in ever wider locations as well as capitalizing on the advances in class delivery modes. Our guiding philosophy of the scholarship of engagement, makes experiential learning and community engagement critical components of our curriculum. For our practice courses we find that hybrid courses give students online flexibility while providing the hands on, face to face interaction practice requires. In this chapter, we share from what we have learnt in three aspects of learning: online, hybrid and experiential studies.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_facbooks/1095/thumbnail.jp

Searching for Hyperspectral Optical Proxies to Aid Chesapeake Bay Resource Managers in the Detection of Poor Water Quality

Shellfish aquaculture is a growing industry in the Chesapeake Bay. As population grows near the coast, extreme weather events cause a greater volume of pollutant runoff from impervious surfaces and agricultural lands. Resource managers who monitor shellfish beds need reliable information on a variety of water quality indicators at higher frequency than is possible through field monitoring programs and at a higher level of detail than current satellite products can provide. Although many factors causing degraded water quality that can impact human health are not currently discernable by traditional multispectral techniques, hyperspectral imagery offers a new opportunity to detect phytoplankton communities associated with harmful algal blooms and biotoxin production. Together with resource managers in their routine monitoring of sites around the bay from small boats, we have been exploring remotely sensed optical proxies for the detection of harmful algal blooms and sewage. Early warning by remote sensing could guide sampling and improve the efficiency of shellfish bed closures, ultimately improving health outcomes for humans and animals. An extensive network of routine sampling by Chesapeake Bay Program managers makes this is an ideal location to develop and test future satellite data products to support management decisions. Next generation hyperspectral measurements from the future Plankton Aerosol Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission at nearly daily frequency, combined with the potential of higher spatial resolution from the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) observing system recommended in the recent Decadal Survey, along with high frequency observations from the newly selected Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) Earth Venture Instrument make this a critical time for defining the needs of the aquaculture and resource management community to save lives, time, and money