Book Review: Cases on the Law of Damages

Abstract

After fifteen years of drought, relieved only once by a gentle shower in the form of a second edition of McCormick's Cases, a two-casebook downpour has fallen on the field of Damages. First came Professor Wright's Cases on Remedies, which concentrates on the substantive law of damages but does not neglect the alternative restitutionary and equitable remedies. It was followed within a few weeks by Professor Crane's Cases on the Law of Damages, a third edition which continues to confine itself strictly to problems involving the classic damage remedy. Both books are the product of the same rainmaker, the West Publishing Company. Hence both appear in the new red-covered, two-columned, slim-jim format recently designed by West to facilitate student and teacher cartage at the expense of marginal note space. Both volumes follow the current trend toward shorter books-a trend that is unfortunately as traceable to the demands of overworked teachers for books that can be taught on an automatic "for tomorrow take the next twenty pages" basis as it is to increased paper and printing costs. Both books can, and will, be used by teachers offering courses called "Damages." But here the resemblance ends. In both aim and attitude, Professors Crane and Wright are generations apart.