Recently, however, unjust enrichment causes of action have been popping up in some interesting cases. Still, prevailing on an unjust enrichment claim is no walk in the park. Many people think Scruggs' Mississippi unjust enrichment claim was a bluff that would have collapsed in front of an alert appellate court. Still, it might be argued that claims based on slavery are so different from typical claims for restitution that the equities will always weigh in favor of the plaintiffs. A Concern about the Use of an Unjust Enrichment Claim Nonetheless, I want to raise a cautionary note about approaching slavery from the perspective of unjust enrichment.
Law is often a powerful tool to help achieve nonlegal ends.
But law contains its own messages as well. And that could happen here. But our analysis cannot end there. The virtue of tort law is that it gives us a vocabulary with which to describe and remedy wrongful treatment by one person to another. The focus is on the wrong done, and not only the damage caused.