Tort Any non criminal wrongful action other than breach of contract Tortfeasor One who commits a tort Somebody who has harmed 03 06 2012 EXAM 3 Tort Law someone else Intentional Torts Intent Desire to bring about certain or substantially likely results You are doing something to somebody knowingly EX You were playing with your friend and you intentionally pushed them This is not saying that you necessarily knew of everything else that happened after you pushed her Because you intentionally to push her you are responsible if she falls down the stairs even if you didn t mean for her to get hurt The effects of intentional tort law is to make people more liable and responsible for their actions o Assault and Battery Assault Placing another in immediate apprehension for his her physical safety You make someone afraid for their safety Or they anticipate they will get hurt You do not necessarily get physically hurt EX In the classic bank robbery the thief points a gun to you but never touches you then that is assault Battery Touching of another without justification or consent The ACTUAL physical touching of someone with out their consent When I raise my first to punch you assault and then I do punch you the battery If you are attacked from the back and had no clue that someone was going to attack you then there was no assault because you didn t anticipate the battery Technically if I come and tap you on your shoulder without your consent then that is considered battery however that claim will not hold in court because there wasn t any damages Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Outrageous intentional conduct carrying a strong probability of causing mental distress Someone does something to you to cause emotional distress Ex if someone from the university calls your parents and tells them you have passed away and then they call them back to tell them they are kidding Because it caused your parents emotional distress then they could sue for IIED In the book the employee that was upset he was fired and tries to sue his boss under IIED The boss had fired him while he was in vacation claiming that he was not performing They lied to him about the true reasons for why he got fired The court ruled that was not that bad and ruled against the employee when the court rules they rule under the basic normal person Was the IIED bad or was it really bad Invasion of Privacy Misappropriation of a person s name or likeness I take a famous celebrity name or picture to make money for myself Ex the Hallmark and Paris Hilton case Using her face in a card Intrusion upon person s physical solitude if they are wire tapping your phone video taping you or when ever you think you are dong something private and someone is doing something secretly to invade your privacy Public disclosure of highly objectionable private information If someone prints your medical record on the newspaper Exemption the public should know if the presidential candidate s health is so delicate he is about to die False Imprisonment Intentional unjustified confinement of a no consenting person If you hold someone and don t allow them to leave In stores they have to be careful not to cross the line with false imprisonment when someone gets caught shoplifting They have to consider the time you are in the place If it was under an hour waiting for the police to come And they have to have a string basis for thinking they have shoplifted If you physically saw the person stick something in their purse This will not be False Imprisonment Because its justified Trespass Entering another s land without consent or remaining after being asked to leave If you refuse to leave a restaurant or club after you are acting crazy and you do not leave this is trespassing If you cross someone s land without permission Conversion Wrongful exercise of power and control over personal property basically means theft Ex I stole your car I go to jail for that act But just because I go to jail does not mean you will get compensation for your car if I wreck it and destroy it Then you sue under tort of conversion so that you get compensation for your car that I theft Under civil court and the criminal court would have been when I was taken to jail Defamation Publication of untrue statements about another leading to damage to the person s character or reputation Someone lies about you and your reputation gets harmed you can get compensation for that o Slander Oral defamation If you spread information to others Not necessarily on newspaper could be just spreading by word of mouth o Libel Defamation which is written or broadcast over radio or television EX if the AJC prints a photo of you saying you abused a child and it was not true This makes it hard for you to get a job you can sue for libel tort In a business setting you lie about a companies ability to pay on time and it is not true this is defamation over 1 3 of defamation cases have to do with references Saying that the reference the company says about them is keeping them from getting another job Defenses to Defamation Truth if you so me for defamation and I prove what I say is true then you can not sue me for defamation This could be hard to proof if it is hear say or happened in the past Privileged Communications if I testified it in court you can not sue me for it Public figure public figures have very little protection under defamation They have to proof that they knowingly knew for a fact that what they were printing is untrue Fraud Intentional misrepresentation of material fact s justifiably relied upon by someone leading to an injury o If I am selling you my car under the believe is a 2007 but its actually a 2003 The civil remedy with out undoing the contract under contract law then you can sue me under Injurious Falsehood Untrue statements disparaging another Tort law for fraud business product or quality o Flip side to defamation If Someone lies about the quality of my product and it is not true If Toyota starts releasing cars are totally unsafe and unreliable and they have no scientific proof then this could be Injurious Falsehood Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations Maliciously inducing another to breach or fail to fulfill a valid contractual obligation If you pursue someone to break a contract with someone else then you can sue me for persuading them to break the contract with you Unintential Torts Negligence An unintentional injury resulting from the defendant s failure to use