Plaintiff entities, awards, and decision justifications in a toxic tort case

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7168989

Catchings, B W

The ecological composition of plaintiff entities may vary in size and sociographics in toxic tort litigation. The amount of awards and the justifications for those awards in the various plaintiff situations are unknown. Consolidation which is procedurally distinct from class consolidation procedurally distinct from class action is an alternative litigation strategy for mass torts. Jury decision making in consolidated actions has not been extensively examined by social scientific, legal, or communication researchers. Awards and decision justifications were gathered from two populations of surrogate jurors. Subjects were asked to decide on the amount of money to award a single plaintiff or a small aggregate, small group, large aggregate or large group of plaintiffs in a written summary of a hypothetical toxic substance case. Respondents were asked to explain the reason(s) for their award decisions. The average award in each situation was in the mid-point area of a range from zero to one million dollars. The amount implies that on average respondents were inclined to give all plaintiff entities approximately $500,000. The justifications for the awards were organized into the following nine categories determined by the application of Toulmin's model of argument: (1) Company Attribution - CA; (2) Employee Attribution - EA; (3) Attribution to Both Employee and Company - BA; (4) Evaluation Pro-Plaintiff-EPP; (5) Evaluation Pro-Defendant - EPD; (6) Sufficient Compensation - SC; (7) Company Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - CASC; (8) Employee Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - EASC; and (9) Both Attribution/Sufficient Compensation - BASC. The classifications revealed a categorical advantage for the plaintiff(s). Respondents provided justifications beyond strict attributions of responsibility to the parties involved. Attribution of responsibility to the employee was a consistent basis for monetary decisions for subjects who decided not to award any compensation.

• Research Organization: Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7168989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290202 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Sociology-- (1992-)
290300* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
DECISION MAKING
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
LAWSUITS
LIABILITIES
MATERIALS
POLLUTION
SOCIOLOGY
TOXIC MATERIALS
VICTIMS COMPENSATION