The Legal Environment of BusinessFINA 2244 Christina Sheppard Futrell, Esq.Chapter Six:Elements of TortsI. Torts and the Legal System- A. Business and Torts- Businesses become involved in a tort action in one of three ways:1. A person is harmed by the actions of a business or its employees;2. A person is harmed by a product manufactured or distributedby the business, or3. A business is harmed by the wrongful actions of another business or person.B. Role of Tort Law- Tort law is private. A crime may also be a tort,but a tort may not necessarily be a crime. Tort law in intended to compensate the aggrieved and sometimes punish the tortfeasor.II. Negligence Based Torts- Negligence is conduct or an act or omission to act which results in a harm to another to whom that person owes a duty of care. There are four elements to negligence:duty, breach, causation and damages.A. Duty of Care- A duty of care is owed to all people who are foreseeable victims of a failure to take adequate precautions. 1. Reasonable Person- Is the standard of how persons in the relevant community ought to behave. How should a doctor conduct his practice, a construction worker conduct his site, etc.2. Breach- The reasonable person did not take adequate precautions, in other words the reasonable person breached his duty of care.3. Causation- The breach in the duty of care is the cause of harm.a. Res Ipsa Loquitur- Meaning, “the thing speaks for itself”. Often used when the Plaintiff doesn’t know exactly what happens, but knows a duty OBVIOUSLY has not been followed. b. Cause in Fact- Is established by showing that a defendant’saction orThe Legal Environment of BusinessFINA 2244 Christina Sheppard Futrell, Esq. inaction is the actual cause of an injury that would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s behavior. c. Proximate Cause- Limits liability to consequences that bear a reasonable relationship to the negligent conduct. Was the harm foreseeable?d. Substantial Factor- “A legal cause of injury is a cause which is a substantial factor in bringing about the injury.”e. Intervening Conduct- Applies when the causal connection between the breach and the damages is broken by an intervening event which supersedes the original breach. 4. Damages- There has to be a resulting loss from the breach in order for an action for negligence to exist, i.e. injury, medical bills, damage to property, loss of revenue, etc.5. Defenses to a Negligence Claim-a. Assumption of Risk- When the injured party voluntarily assumes the risk of harm arising from the negligent conduct of someone else.b. Comparative Negligence- Reduces damages by the percentage of the injuries caused by the plaintiff’s own negligence.III. Intentional Torts-A. Establishing Intent- 1. The person knew what he or she was doing.2. The person should have known what he or she was doing andthe possible consequence. speeding3. The person knew that certain results were likely to occur. B. Assault- An intentional conduct toward another directed toward another that places the person in fear of immediate bodily harm or offensive contact. You don’t have to touch the person. You have to see the person coming for it to be assault.C. Battery- An intentional conduct toward another that results in bodily harm or offensive contact. Often referred to joint withThe Legal Environment of BusinessFINA 2244 Christina Sheppard Futrell, Esq.assault. If someone came up be hide you and beat you… you did not see it coming it is considered battery1. Defenses to both Assault and Battery-a. Consent- permission given to be touched b. Privilege- gives liability to law enforcement officersc. Self-defense- fighting back with a reasonable response d. Defense of Others- when people are fighting and you intervene.D. False Imprisonment- The intentional, detaining or confining of a person that violates ones protected interest in freedom of movement. You are not free to leave (zip ties/ cuffs) or sufficient restraint in a bounded area.E. Infliction of Emotional Distress- Conduct that is so outrageous that it creates severe mental or emotional distress in another person. When ones conduct is so outrageous that it emotionally hurts someone. It has to be outrageous. It has to result in emotional distress. F. Invasion of Privacy- May be committed in the following ways:1. The use of a person’s name or picture without permission.2. The intrusion into a person’s solitude. For instance to bathroom3. Placing a person in false light. Rumors 4. The public exposure of facts that are private in nature. Medical record, juvenile recordG. Defamation- An intentional false communication that injures a person’s reputation. 1. Slander- spoken defamation.2. Libel- is defamation in the form or a printing, a writing, a picture or a radio or TV broadcast. The elements of both include:a. Making a false or defamatory statement about another person.b. Publishing or communicating the statement to a third person.c. Causing harm to the person about whom the statement was made.3. Workplace Defamation-4. Defenses-The Legal Environment of BusinessFINA 2244 Christina Sheppard Futrell, Esq.a. Absolute Privilege- applied in those situation were public policy favors complete freedom of speech.b. Conditional Privilege- applies when the false statement was published in good faith and with proper motives such as for a legitimate business purpose. c. Constitutional Privilege- protects members of the press who publish opinion material about public figures. This privilege can however, be lost if there was malice in the publication of the material, i.e. it was done in bad