ABSTRACT
Separate sections of the Oakland Tribune on August 15, 1985, featured three stories whose full import could be understood only by considering them all together. The front page, under the headline “Pollution insurance drying up,” carried a feature article explaining how companies seeking to clean up hazardous wastes were forced to curtail their work because they could not obtain liability insurance for a reasonable fee. On page one of the Lifestyle section, interested readers could learn that midwives and obstetricians were in dire straits because they were unable to get medical malpractice coverage, a specific type of liability insurance. Many were abandoning their profession or starting underground practices. The reader who continued perusing the paper could find out on the third page of the Sports section that a jury had awarded $180,000 to a woman who had been struck by a ball while watching a baseball game at the Astrodome; because she had not been warned that spectators faced the danger of being hit by foul balls, the owner of the Houston Astros was liable and had to pay her damages.
