"Everything from an alarming advertisement to a cockroach baked in a pie." That's the way W.Page Keeton, a tort heavy, described what the legal theory of public nuisance could apply to. Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Maureen Martin brings that up in her opinion-editorial published Sunday in THE PLAIN DEALER.
Well, this absurd situation hasn't ended. Martin points out that the theory was successfully used against the Tennessee Valley Authority by the Attorney General of North Carolina. In California a lead paint public nuisance case is pending. All too often Walter Olson on Pointoflaw.com brings up another tedious example of where public nuisance is again being used, perhaps as a Hail Mary pass.
Obviously, organizations ranging from those making a legal product many decades ago which is no longer in existence to utilities are still sitting ducks for a public-nuisance legal ambush.
Maureen Martin can be reached at The Heartland Institute at mmartin@heartland.org.
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