Night of the Living Dead

Stewart Title Guaranty Co. v. Sterling, 822 S.W.2d 1, 11, 35 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 206 (Tex. 1991)

When the majority of the court reversed Texas law and followed a previous decision -- which had already been expressly overruled -- the minority court filed a dissenting opinion:

"Visiting the graveyard of abandoned legal precedents, the court today mystically revives the corpse of Bradshaw v. Baylor University, 126 Tex. 99, 84 S.W.2d 703 (Tex. 1935), and the one recovery rule it embodied. We had previously pronounced Bradshaw dead in determining that "the reasoning behind the one recovery rule no longer applies." Duncan, 665 S.W.2d at 431, and concluding that "to the extent it conflicts with this opinion, we overrule Bradshaw v. Baylor University." Id. at 432. Now this court has awakened yet another dead tort principle to roam the land, terrorizing victims. As in The Night of the Living Dead, an unthinking zombie is raised to prey on the living. When this court has resurrected enough of these monsters, the landscape of tort law will be bleak indeed, and let the victims beware.   The one recovery rule of Bradshaw is dead, and because I prefer to let the dead rest in peace, I dissent."