ANOTHER NEW TORT?

During the past two years there have come suggestions of at least two new torts: intentional infliction of mental suffering, and radio defamation. The ease with which the decision in Baxter v. Ford Motor Company has caught on, especially with legal scholars and with at least one American court, suggests that we may soon have to add a third. This one, however, will be more difficult to label, for the writers who applaud the result seem to be in almost complete disagreement as to the principle of the case; there are already several explanations and justifications for the liability imposed upon the defendant automobile manufacturer by the Supreme Court; of Washington; and the court itself, apparently, had considerable difficulty in determining just what sort of liability it had imposed.