At common law an innkeeper had to receive any traveler able to pay and fit to be received. Modern lodging statutes restate the duty and list the grounds for refusal: no vacancy, inability or refusal to pay, intoxication or disorderly conduct, exceeding posted occupancy, and use of the room for an unlawful purpose. Federal public accommodation law and state civil rights acts remove protected characteristics from the list, and disability law adds obligations rather than exceptions.
Statutes give a lodging operator a lien on a guest's baggage and other property for room charges and extras furnished at the guest's request. The lien does not reach exempt property, property belonging to someone else once the operator has notice, or, in many states, the guest's essential items. Enforcement is regulated: some states require a judgment before sale, others prescribe notice, advertising and a public sale, with surplus proceeds held for the owner.
Statutes let any person interested in an adult's welfare petition, including the adult. The petition must identify relatives, existing agents, payees and trustees, state the powers sought and explain why lesser measures will not work. The adult receives personal service in plain language; other listed persons usually receive mail service. Most statutes bar the hearing from proceeding unless the adult attends or the court finds attendance would cause harm or is impossible.
The rule that makes a prescription effective also places a corresponding responsibility on the pharmacist who fills it. That duty is triggered by circumstances that would give a reasonable pharmacist cause for concern, and it is discharged only by resolving the concern before dispensing. Documenting a doubt and filling anyway does not satisfy it, and repeated failures are the usual factual basis for an action against a pharmacy's registration.
Most states maintain a registry where a man who believes he may have fathered a child files identifying information to preserve a right to notice of an adoption or termination proceeding. Registration does not establish paternity and confers no custody. Deadlines are short, commonly measured from the child's birth or from the filing of a petition. A certificate that a search found no filing lets a court proceed without notice to any unregistered man.
An injured railroad employee sues the carrier for negligence under a federal statute rather than claiming state workers compensation. Fault must be proved, but the causation threshold is whether the employer's negligence played any part in producing the injury. Assumption of risk is abolished, contributory negligence reduces damages instead of barring them, and any contract exempting the carrier is void. Suit must be filed within three years of accrual.
Statutes give a person who performs labor or supplies materials on a vehicle a lien on it for the reasonable value of the work. The lien is possessory: it depends on retaining the vehicle and is generally lost by voluntary surrender, without revival when the vehicle returns. It secures only authorized work, so a shop that exceeds a written estimate or works without authority may hold no lien for the excess.
Consent statutes set a minimum interval after birth before a birth parent may sign, then a revocation period measured either in days or by reference to court approval. Some states make consent binding on execution for a newborn and allow only fraud or duress as a later challenge. Others allow a fixed number of days, or a waiver of the right to revoke signed with counsel. Federal law adds a separate rule where the child is an Indian child.
A director must act in good faith, in a manner believed to be in the best interests of the corporation, and with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use, including reasonable inquiry. Directors may rely on officers, counsel, accountants and committees they believe competent. Courts will not review the wisdom of a decision made on that basis, but the protection falls away for self-dealing, bad faith, failure to investigate and failure to enforce the documents at all.
Nearly every state has a right-of-disposition statute that ranks the people who may direct burial, cremation or another authorized method. An agent named in a signed writing normally sits at the top, followed by spouse, adult children, parents and siblings. Within a rank, most statutes accept a majority of those reachable. A person charged with causing the death, or one who will not act in the statutory window, drops out. A provider facing a real dispute may hold the body and wait for a court.
Continuous residence and continuous physical presence end at the earlier of two events: service of a notice to appear under the statute, or commission of an offense that renders the person inadmissible under the criminal ground or removable under the criminal or security grounds. The Supreme Court has held that a document omitting the time and place of the hearing is not a notice to appear for this purpose, and that a later notice supplying the missing detail does not cure the defect.
Statutes commonly limit a board to a stated percentage increase in regular assessments and to special assessments aggregating no more than a stated percentage of budgeted gross expenses in a fiscal year, unless the members approve. Approval is usually by a majority of a quorum voting by secret ballot. An emergency exception permits assessments beyond the cap for court-ordered expenses, threats to health or safety, and unforeseeable extraordinary expenses supported by a written board resolution.
