LSB 3213 1st Edition Lecture 23 Current Lecture Today Discuss chapter 6 torts Torts Defined A civil not criminal wrong that is not a breach of contract Especially violations of physical safety and private property o Emotional distress is not enough to be at tort but physical injury and emotional distress is enough Standard of Judgment for Torts Four levels of potential liability o Intentional willful malicious o Reckless conscious disregard of a known risk Intentional and reckless torts are very similar You can get punitive damages for these two levels but not for negligence or strict liability o Negligence careless not intentional o Strict Liability cause effect not mental state Intentional Tort Claims See Chapter 6 in textbook Torts against a person o Assault and battery invasion of privacy example when a party discloses information publicly defamation false statement that injures another person s reputation false imprisonment Torts against property o Trespass to land not always a person can be water animals etc conversion tort version of theft Other business torts o Interference with contractual or business relationship Motel 6 Bed Bug Case 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 A Motel 6 in Chicago was infamous for having bed bugs in all 200 of their rooms The motel did receive a bid for 500 from EcoLabs to exterminate all of the rooms but the motel refused it The motel manager knows that there a few rooms that are especially bad and make a note not to rent those rooms out to anyone but they still did on busy nights A lower level employee tells the manager about the problems but he does nothing about it Eventually a couples file a lawsuit against Motel 6 for 5 000 in medical expenses What standard of wrongfulness applies o Reckless unjustified disregard of known risk knew but did nothing about it o Court finds them liable for fraud and battery What should the damages be o 5 000 in compensatory damages direct medical damages o None for pain and suffering indirect compensatory damages o 400 000 in punitive damages 200 rooms x 1 000 per room x 2 people Exxon Valdez Alaska Oil Spill In 1989 an oil tanker crashed into the Prince William Sound in Alaska spilling 11 38 million gallons of oil over 1 300 miles of coastline and 11 0000 square miles of ocean The land was only accessible by boat or air which made clean up difficult The captain of the ship was a known alcoholic the underwater radar on the ship had been broken for a year and the number of workers on the ship had been cut by 50 over the past five years Exxon was very proactive after the crash paying 2 1 billion out of court for clean up efforts and 1 billion in environmental claims In court o Class action suit of commercial fishermen and Alaskans o Recklessness vs Negligence o SCOTUS worse than negligent but less than malicious Reckless o Class action jury decision o Compensatory 507 million including settlements o Punitives 5 billion 10 1 ratio punitives to compensatory On appeal reduced to 2 5b then 500m o Ratio of punitives to compensatory damages 1 1 4 1 9 1 standards set by the courts McDonald s Hot Coffee Case A 79 year old woman in New Mexico and her grandson went through a McDonald s drive through and got some coffee The grandson was driving and pulled into a parking spot while his grandmother held the coffee in her lap and took the lid off to put creamer in it While opening it the coffee spilt all over her lap The coffee was 180 to 190 degrees and caused the woman severe burns on her legs 20 000 in medical bills 8 days in the hospital skin grafts and 2 years follow up Over a period of ten years McDonald s had over 700 reports and 500 000 in settlements to other customers injured by the hot coffee McDonald s conducted quality control tests that showed that their coffee had the best taste at 180 to 190 degrees Out of court McDonald s tried to settle with the woman for only 800 for her medical bills In court o 160 000 in compensatory damages pain suffering o 2 7m in punitive damages which was equal to 2 days of coffee sales for McDonald s o 17 1 ratio of punitive to compensatory damages Final outcome o Judge reduced punitive damages to 640 000 4 1 ratio of punitive to compensatory o They ended up settling for less than 600 000 before appeal False Imprisonment Intentional restraint of freedom without justification Seen in shoplifting cases o Merchants may use reasonable force in a reasonable manner for a reasonable time There is no specific guidelines definition for reasonable Important to remember not what the person felt thought what a reasonable person would feel or think Defamation 4 elements to prove False statement presented as true Statement is about plaintiff and harmed plaintiff s reputation Published to at least one person besides plaintiff If plaintiff is public figure must prove actual malice meant intentionally harmed the person American Hustle Movie Example 1 million lawsuit for defamation libel in writing slander in speech The movie stated that some of this actually happened about the events portrayed in the movie Jennifer Lawrence s character in the movie says Microwaves take the nutrition out of food I read it in an article by Paul Brodeur Brodeur is a scientist who wrote The Zapping of America and felt that this line in the movie harmed his reputation as a scientist Was there really defamation o Hard to prove that the information was presented as true as it was a movie and the character in the movie was not mentally stable Wrongful Interference with Contract Usually the third party to the contract is not responsible for damages but Tortious interference with contract requires o Contract exists o 3rd party knows of contract o 3rd party intentionally induces breach Example of poaching employees o If an employee has a non compete agreement with their current employer but another company wants to hire that employee and convinces them to leave the company and work for the new company the new company wrongfully interfered with the contract as they knew of the contract and intentionally convinced the employee to breach the contract OSU Example o OSU football defensive line coach Wickline had a contract with OSU that stated that if he found a job that promoted him to a position that gave him duties he doesn t currently have at OSU then he can leave However if he takes a position somewhere else