Also known as: reaffirm · reaffirms · reaffirmed · reaffirming · reaffirmations · reaffirmation agreement
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An act of expressly approving or confirming something previously decided or agreed to. The confirmation renews the prior determination and may carry legal consequences for the parties or doctrine involved.
After a child was injured during a family outing, the parents faced a negligence suit brought on the child's behalf. The trial court applied the parental immunity doctrine to dismiss the claim. On appeal the reviewing court expressly confirmed the doctrine's continued validity, holding that ordinary negligence arising from parental supervision remains shielded to preserve family harmony.
A patient sued a medical device manufacturer after suffering complications from an implanted device. The manufacturer had warned the prescribing physician of the risks. The appellate court expressly confirmed that the duty to warn runs only to the physician, not the patient, and required the plaintiff to prove that a different warning would have changed the physician's decision.
The court expressly confirms that the earlier rule remains good law and continues to govern similar disputes. This confirmation binds lower courts within the jurisdiction and signals that the doctrine has not been overruled or limited by subsequent developments.
Reaffirmation can rest on the original record and prior reasoning. The court need only state that the earlier holding continues to apply without revisiting every underlying fact.
…apply, as was suggested in G. M. Leasing Corp. v. United States , 429 U. S. 338, 352 (1977). Whatever its proper reading, we reaffirm today our basic understanding that the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures fully applies in the civil context. : This was the view expressed by the Court of…