Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)

Citation: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Parent Document: Carl v. Children's Hospital, 702 A.2d 159 (1997)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 1997-09-23
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2395626/carl-v-childrens-hospital/ ↗

Full Text

1,016 chars

As to my colleague's concern about notice, it is true that a statute commonly is written to operate prospectively (although that is not always the case[47]), whereas a judicial decision typically will apply a new rule in favor of the party who advocated it, even though the loser will be told after the fact that he or she committed a wrong. The common law, however, has always evolved in this way, but usually with plenty of warning from legal articles and treatises, from developments in other states, and even from prior judicial decisions that fire warning shots across the bow in the jurisdiction where a change eventually is made. I doubt that the parties who lost the decisions in the cases discussed earlier were greatly surprised; surely the lawyers had counseled their clients that change might be coming (so that settlement might prudently be pursued). Moreover, in many if not most of the cases, legal counsel is likely to have given their clients warnings before the conduct found actionable took place.

Other Sections in This Document (617)

Full Text