Chapter 12TORTSI. The Basis of Tort Lawa. Tort: a civil wrong that unfairly causes someone else to suffer loss or harmand resulting in legal liability for the person committing the tort b. Tort law is designed to compensate those who have suffered a loss/injury due to someone else’s wrongful actc. Two kinds of damages (money) available in tort actions:i. Compensatory: intended to compensate/reimburse for actual losses1. Special damages: compensate plaintiff for quantifiable monetary losses2. General damages: compensate plaintiff for non-monetary losses, such as pain and suffering and loss of consortium (extremely difficult to quantify)ii. Punitive: intended to punish wrongdoer and deter others from similar actsd. Tort Reform: does the tort system encourage frivolous lawsuits? i. State legislation limiting amount of general damages ii. State legislation limiting or banning punitive damagesII. Intentional Torts Againt the Persona. Tortfeasor (one committing the tort) must intend the consequences of the act or know with substantial certainty that specific consequences will result from the actb. Assaulti. Any intentional or unexcused threat of immediate harmful or offensive touching; words or acts create a reasonably believable threatii. Can be a civil or criminal offensec. Batteryi. An unexcused and harmful or offensive physical contact intentionally performedii. Can be a civil or criminal offensed. False Imprisonment: the intentional confinement or restraint of another person’s activities without justificationi. An issue when businesspeople detain customers on suspicion ii. Merchants have a privilege to detain: merchants can use reasonableforce to detain or delay a person suspected of shoplifting and hold them for policee. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: extreme or outrageous conduct resulting in severe emotional distress to anotheri. Act must exceed bounds of decency accepted by societyii. Hustler v. Falwell: First Amendment protection from claims of IIED for creators of parodies of public figuresf. Defamation: breach of the general duty to refrain from making false, public statements of fact about othersi. Publication: communicating defamatory statement to others (required for tort to be actionable)ii. Slander: spoken (oral) defamation; plaintiff must prove that slandercost him actual economic/monetary harmiii. Libel: written defamation; plaintiff does not need to prove injury, general damages are presumed if defendant is found liableiv. Truth is a defense to defamation (McKee v. Laurion)v. Public figures are “fair game;” to prove defamation public figure must show actual maliceg. Invasion of Privacy: a person must have a reasonable expectation of privacy and the invasion must be highly offensiveh. Fraudulent Misrepresentation: false representation, through misstatement of facts or through conduct, with the intent to deceive another, and on which another person reasonably relies to his detrimenti. Abusive or Frivolous Litigation: protects people from the misuse of litigationIII. Business Tortsa. Wrongful Interference with a Contractual Relationship: there must bei. A valid, enforceable contractii. A third party must know about the contractiii. Third party must intentionally induce a party to the contract to breach the contractiv. Example: Ford Models v. Men Women NY Model Managementb. Wrongful Interference with a Business Relationship: businesses are prohibited from unreasonably interfering with another’s business in their attempt to gain a greater share of the marketi. Example: false claims/accusations are made about a business in order to drive away potential customersii. Defenses: showing that interference was legitimate competitive behavior (example: cola wars)IV. Intentional Torts Against Propertya. Trespass to Land: occurs when a person, without permission:i. Enters onto, above, or below the surface of the land that is owned by anotherii. Causes anything to enter onto land owned by anotheriii. Remains on land owned by another or permits anything to remain on itiv. Do not need to prove actual harm to land to prevailb. Trespass to Personal Property: When an individual wrongfully takes or harm the personal property of another or otherwise interferes with the lawful owner’s possession and enjoyment of personal propertyc. Conversion: any act that deprives an owner of personal property, or the use of that personal property, without the owner’s permission and without just causeV. Negligencea. When a person suffers injury because of another person’s failure to live upto a required duty of carei. Intent is not requiredii. Actor’s conduct creates foreseeable risk of certain consequencesb. To succeed in a negligence action the plaintiff must prove:i. Dutyii. Breach of dutyiii. Causationiv. Damagesc. Duty of Care: unwritten rule to not infringe on the interests of othersd. The Reasonable Person Standard: to determine whether the duty of care to others has been breached courts look at how an objectively reasonable (hypothetical) person would have acted in the same circumstancesi. Determined on case by case basis looking at totality of the circumstancesii. Judge or jury typically decides how reasonable person in position of the defendant would have actediii. Exceptions for those with certain limitations (children, disabled, etc): courts look at how a reasonable person with the same limitations as the defendant would activ. Elevated standard for those with certain skill set (the reasonable doctor, the reasonable police officer, etc.)e. The Duty of Landowners: expected to exercise reasonable care to protect people coming onto their property from harmi. Retailers and other companies have a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect business inviteesii. Storeowners must warn business invitees of foreseeable (NOT obvious) risksf. Causation: the tortfeasor’s negligent act must have caused the harm, to do so, must prove both:i. Causation in Fact: “but for” test- the injury would not have occurred but for the defendant’s act ii. Proximate Cause: were injuries sustained foreseeable or too remotely connected to the injury to trigger liability 1. Limits scope of defendant’s liability2. Palsgraf v. Long Island RRg. Injury with damages must result from allegedly negligent acth. Negligence Per Se: occurs if an individual violates a statute or ordinance providing for a criminal penalty and the violation causes another to be injuredi. Good Samaritan