Abstract
Illustrations are a crucial part of all Restatements. Illustrations show how the law applies to different situations and how it affects specific people. Restatements of Torts have not simply explained landowners’ duties, for example, but have provided examples of how landowner liability doctrines work in practice. The Second Restatement of Torts discusses the duty a possessor of land owes to someone who enters the property by discussing the liability of “A Company” to “B, the daughter of one of the A Company’s workmen,” who was bringing dinner to her father at the plant. The Third Restatement gives the example of “Ed and Margaret,” who carpool to work and park in the Viner Hospital lot. Margaret walks to her office building and Ed visits his brother in the hospital.
The illustrations reflect a major substantive change in the Restatements. The Second Restatement explains that B is a licensee to whom the company is liable. The Third Restatement eliminates the distinction between invitees, licensees, and trespassers; it would find the hospital liable to both Ed and Margaret when they fall in the icy lot even though Margaret is technically a trespasser. The substantive legal changes in the Third Restatement have been the subject of extensive commentary. But the Restatement has received no attention for the dramatic change at play in the background: the illustrations. The illustrations refer to the parties by name.
Recommended Citation
Barbara Kritchevsky,
Welcoming Lakeesha and Vincenzo to the Restatement of Torts,
100 Neb. L. Rev.
(2021)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol100/iss3/3