Torts-Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act-General Release of One Tortfeasor Releases All

Plaintiff, riding as a passenger with X, was injured in an accident involving the automobile driven by X and a truck owned by defendant. Several months later X paid plaintiff $1,518.87 and received a release. Plaintiff then brought an action in trespass against the defendant, charging negligence in causing the accident and claiming$10,000 damages. The defendant joined X as an additional defendant and X pleaded the release. Defendant\u27s amended answer claimed that the broad language of the release, any and all other persons, within the meaning of the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act, provided a release for the defendant also. The lower court entered judgment on the pleadings against plaintiff, and in favor of both X and the defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed, two justices dissenting. The intent of plaintiff to release all of the tortfeasors was clearly evidenced, as required by statute, by the language of the release. Hasselrode v. Gnagey, 404 Pa. 549, 172 A.2d 764 (1961)

Taxation-Federal Income Tax-Accrual of State Property Taxes Paid Under Protest

During the years 1946 to 1950 a local tax upon respondent\u27s real property was assessed at one hundred dollars. Respondent paid the full assessment to avoid interest penalties and seizure and sale of the property under tax liens, but contested the assessment in the state court, denying any liability greater than eighty-five dollars. In each of the preceding years, complying with a private ruling directed to it by the Commissioner, respondent had deducted the full one hundred dollars, and, when in 1951 the tax was fixed by the state court at ninety-five dollars, respondent included the five-dollar refund in its gross income. Respondent then instituted this action to recover an alleged overpayment of income tax in 1951, claiming that ten dollars of the one hundred-dollar deduction taken in each year should have been deferred until 1951, and that the five-dollar refund should be excluded from that year\u27s gross income. The district court disagreed with respondent\u27s contentions and accepted the view of the Commissioner that the whole amount of the assessed tax accrued, and thus was properly deducted, in the year in which it was paid and that the five-dollar refund represented income to the taxpayer in 1951. The Second Circuit reversed on both counts. On certiorari, held, affirmed. The remittance of the property tax, under protest, was not a type of payment which would serve to accrue the contested portion of the tax before respondent\u27s liability had been determined by the state court. United States v. Consolidated Edison Co., 366 U.S. 380 (1961)

When a Patent Claim is Broader Than the Disclosure: The Federal Circuit\u27s Game Has No Rules, 1 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 21 (2001)

The Federal Circuit has become much less willing to enforce a claim that is broader than the specific embodiments described in the patent. Unfortunately, its decisions provide no guidelines for identifying such situations. Nor is the court consistent in its attacks on the problem. Sometimes it simply construes the claim as limited to the specific embodiment and finds no infringement. Sometimes it invalidates the claim for want of an adequate written description or for insufficient scope of enablement. It is suggested that a careful use of the reverse doctrine of equivalents would create stability and predictability with respect to this very difficult issue

Insurance-Rate Regulation-Construction and Effect of Guaranty Bond Agreement

Plaintiff, an insurance agents\u27 association and several other insurance companies and associations, instituted an action attacking an order of the State Board of Insurance. The order approved a guaranty bond form, together with rates and rules, which had been submitted to ,the Board pursuant to statute by the defendant insurance company. The guaranty agreement was an arrangement whereby defendant guaranteed payment of losses under fire insurance policies of other insurers in the event the latter should be unable to pay. Although the bond form was not restricted to any specific original insurers, it was contemplated that defendant would use ,the guaranty arrangement in connection with the policies of its affiliate. Defendant was subject to regulated fire insurance rates, while its affiliate was not, even though both were under common management; thus, its affiliate was able to sell fire insurance at lower rates than those fixed by, the Board for defendant. Plaintiff objected to the guaranty agreement on the ground that it would, in effect, permit defendant to write fire insurance at unregulated rates. The lower court agreed and set aside the Board\u27s order. On appeal, held, reversed, one judge dissenting. The guaranty agreement was a true guaranty bond, not a fire insurance policy, and thus was not subject to regulated rates. International Serv. Ins. Co. v. Dallas Ass\u27n of Ins. Agents, 351 S.W.2d 297 (Tex. Civ. App. 1961)

Comparing The Machiavellianism Of Todays Indonesian College Students With U. S. College Students Of Today And The 1960s

The tactics and strategies that were suggested by Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince (1513) have become synonymous with manipulative and unethical practices. Machiavellis writing to the politician has been used to describe business leaders as well. The business literature indicates that Machiavellian tactics do not guarantee success. The research we report examined the Machiavellian tendencies of college students in Indonesia and compare those results to the literature including the original U.S. student sample of the 1960s and the Harmon and Webster student sample published in 2002

Increased respiratory symptoms following surgery in children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75635/1/j.1460-9592.2003.01100.x.pd

Emerging Digital Frontiers for Service Innovation

This paper examines emerging digital frontiers for service innovation that a panel discussed at a workshop on this topic held at the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). The speakers and participants agreed that that service systems are fundamental for service innovation and value creation. In this context, service systems are related to cognitive systems, smart service systems, and cyber-physical systems and depend on the interconnectedness among system components. The speakers and participants regarded humans as the central entity in all service systems. In addition, data, they saw personal data in particular as key to service systems. They also identified several challenges in the areas of cognitive systems, smart service systems, cyber-physical systems, and human-centered service systems. We hope this workshop report helps in some small way to cultivate the emerging service science discipline and to nurture fruitful discussions on service innovation

Three years of Fermi GBM Earth Occultation Monitoring: Observations of Hard X-ray/Soft Gamma-Ray Sources

The Gamma ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board Fermi has been providing continuous data to the astronomical community since 2008 August 12. In this paper we present the results of the analysis of the first three years of these continuous data using the Earth occultation technique to monitor a catalog of 209 sources. From this catalog, we detect 99 sources, including 40 low-mass X-ray binary/neutron star systems, 31 high-mass X-ray binary neutron star systems, 12 black hole binaries, 12 active galaxies, 2 other sources, plus the Crab Nebula, and the Sun. Nine of these sources are detected in the 100-300 keV band, including seven black-hole binaries, the active galaxy Cen A, and the Crab. The Crab and Cyg X-1 are also detected in the 300-500 keV band. GBM provides complementary data to other sky-monitors below 100 keV and is the only all-sky monitor above 100 keV. Up-to-date light curves for all of the catalog sources can be found at http://heastro.phys.lsu.edu/gbm/.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ