Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim. For instance, if a car crash victim claims damages against the driver for loss or injury sustained in an accident, this will be a civil law case. Civil law courts provide a forum for deciding disputes involving torts (such as accidents, negligence, and libel), contract disputes, the probate of wills, trusts, property disputes, administrative law, commercial law, and any other private matters that involve private parties or organizations including government departments. The objectives of civil law are different from other types of law. In civil law there is the attempt to right a wrong, honor an agreement, or settle a dispute. If there is a victim, they get compensation, and the person who is the cause of the wrong pays, this being a civilized form of, or legal alternative to, revenge.
Bath is an unincorporated community in Bath Township, Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated just north of exit 92 off Interstate 69, about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of East Lansing. The community itself has no elected officials nor any separate governmental functions from the township and only serves to generally describe the central business district of Bath Township centered at Webster and Clark roads. Bath is also the home of the 2007 Class C Boys Basketball State Champions. On May 18, 1927, in what became known as the Bath School disaster, Andrew Kehoe, a cash-strapped farmer and local school board member killed his wife, bombed every building on his farm before explosives he had secretly hidden under the school building located in the central business district went off. He later drove to the school in a truck rigged with more explosives which he detonated next to the school superintendent. In all, Kehoe killed 44 people and himself, in the worst school violence in U.S. history. Only half of the 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of explosives set under the school went off, probably greatly lowering the death toll. Thirty-eight out of the 314 students, three teachers, the superintendent, the postmaster and a local farmer assisting at the scene were killed. Most of the dead were students from second to sixth grade. Fifty-eight others were injured.