Law 3220 1st Edition Lecture 9 Outline of Last Lecture I Negligence a Proximate Cause b Good Samaritan Law c Defenses to negligence II Intentional Tort a Assault and Battery b Infliction of Emotional Distress c Defamation d Criminal Domestic Violence e Defenses to Intentional Acts Outline of Current Lecture I II III IV V False Imprisonment Infliction of Emotional Mental Distress Invasion of Privacy Defamation Fraud a Breach of Contract Fraud Current Lecture Fuerschbach vs Southwest Airlines Customer service rep was mock arrested as a joke by company suffered from post traumatic stress sued employees and Albuquerque police department judge found that the police were not physically harmful in their fake arrest appealed and jury was asked to conclude the facts False Imprisonment o The intentional holding detaining or confinement o Ex Store thinks a person is shoplifting and takes them to the back and calls the police o Forgie Buccioni v Hannagord Brothers Bought cold medicine but it was the wrong one so went back into the store went in told the clerk he was just exchanging it got the right medicine went to a different clerk Forgie told clerk he already paid for the medicine manager followed him out to his car and he was arrested charges later dropped false imprisonment jury awarded Forgie 100 000 Infliction of Emotional Mental Distress o Something happens that is so outrageous that it creates severe mental or emotional distress o Designed to humiliate These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Ex Louisiana court gave an award to a woman who found her comatose husband being chewed by rats in a hospital o Ex Employee not allowed to go to the bathroom and wet herself so sued o Lawler vs Montblanc Montblanc makes high end writing tools Lawler was a manager at a store because of a medical condition she said she could only work 20 hours a week Montblanc said as a manager she had to work 40 hours president of Montblanc came to see how store was run and was apparently very critical and unpleasant Company said she had to leave but would be given severance pay sued for discrimination of disability and emotional distress because of the president case was thrown out because not extreme enough Hard damage damage you can measure o Ex Medical bill Invasion of Privacy Infringement on a person s right of solitude and freedom from unwarranted public exposure o Ex Take a person s picture from Facebook and put it on water bottles and sell them across the country o Intrusion wiretap o Telling a story in a false light o Public exposure of private facts Ex see something on someone s computer and post it all over Facebook o Exceptions Can tell private facts about a public figure Can tell information from public files or records o James vs Bob Ross Buick In 2002 James was sales rep of the year in 2003 nobody met the sales quota in 2004 he was fired afterwards Buick sent out letters to customers in the name of James James sued for misappropriation of his name at first court sided for Buick appealed it was reversed because the letters were sent in the name of James and were done for commercial benefit money that Buick received from using James name can be part of actual damages to him Defamation an intentional false communication that injures a person s reputation o Slander spoken defamation o Libel written or television broadcast defamation o Defamation has to be a false statement published or communicated to a third person that causes no harm to the plaintiff o If it goes far enough could become emotional distress o Per Se presumption of harm No proof of harm injury is necessary Workplace Defamation Ex Used to work at Pixie and Bills and you were awful go to Blue Heron Blue Heron calls P and B and asks about how you were as a waitress if P and B gives extra information that can be defamation Defenses to defamation o 1 Has to be published to a third party so if not it s not defamation o 2 Absolute Privilege immunity statements said in a sanctioned setting are immune o 3 Conditional Privilege eliminates liability if the false statement was published in good faith without malice o 4 Constitutional privilege Press can publish opinion of public figures if there is no actual malice Chambers vs Travelers Chambers worked for Travelers employees began to file complaints about Chambers Chambers was warned about her behavior Chambers went on a business trip and took her daughter and grandson superior asked her if her daughter was there and she said yes but did not say grandson when superior found out about grandson she was fired Chambers sued for defamation sided with Travelers appealed court investigated further and found that in fact the employees who had complained had no real malice against Chambers so the ruling stood in favor of Travelers Chapter 7 Business Torts and Product Liability There is a battle between those who want an open court system and not as open o Ex Medical Malpractice in South Carolina is negligence expert has to comment which makes it less transparent to public Civil Justice System point is that whoever damaged you is responsible in making you whole If there is a medical suit in certain state there may be a cap on the number of damages you can be paid If you still need more money for damages the state pays which comes from taxpayers o Good for risky people o Good for insurance companies o Bad for taxpayers Fraud deliberate deception o Elements of Fraud 1 Misstatement of a material fact 2 Scienter Intent to defraud wanted to mislead other party 3 Seller must know or have reason to know that the statement is wrong 4 Person receiving info has to justifiably rely on it to make a decision 5 Privity between the parties in a legal relationship 6 Proximate cause between the misstatement and the losses that were suffered 7 Has to be damages caused by the fraud o Breach of Contract is often fraud if you enter the contract knowing that you can t fulfill it