HORSING AROUND

Staffers at the American Museum of Tort Law raised their eyebrows when they saw us pull up in a Ford Pinto. For a moment, we thought they weren?t going to unlock the front door. We borrowed the car from Connie and Bill (last name withheld to protect the lunatics), who currently own seven Pintos. This 1978?s original 2.3-liter four-cylinder is gone, replaced by a newer 2.3 from a 1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. When we met Bill at our hotel, he told us he loves everything about the car except its reputation. Not five seconds after we went to check it out, another man walking by in the parking lot saw the car and exclaimed: ?Pinto" Better hope you don?t get rear-ended!?

A legal museum sounds about as exciting as a Museum of Unspoken Petty Criticisms. (Marquee display: June 21, 1987, Man takes more than his fair share of space in the office fridge . . . again.) But our curiosity was piqued. We found the museum rather interesting; it makes the law approachable and understandable. If you were to think of tort law as the art of finger-pointing, you wouldn?t be far off. The questions at the heart of most tort cases boil down to: Who was at fault" What is an acceptable level of risk" Can you ever be safe enough" To that last one, the answer is, ?Of course not.?
Our eye for danger sharpened, we turned it on the very instrument of its ­honing. Turns out that unseen dangers lurk even in the Museum of Tort Law.
HAZARD: THEATER CHAIRS
A 10-minut...