BCOR 3000 1st Edition Exam 2 Study Guide Lectures 7 12 Chapter 4 Tort Law Overview Key Terms and Definitions What is a tort A tort is a civil wrong entitling the victim to compensation Torts deal with civil case matters Torts however are not necessarily a crime but do often relate or connect with one The recovery from a tort is based on the damage done to the plaintiff What are damages Damages come in two different forms 1 Compensatory Damages and 2 Punitive Damages The point of damages it to repay to the plaintiff what was lost This is sometimes hard to measure Compensatory damages deal with the actual loss that the plaintiff incurs Punitive damages deal with any additional money that the defendant must pay to the plaintiff There are 2 types of torts Intentional and Unintentional Within this two types are many different types of examples 1 Intentional Torts Assault battery false imprisonment intentional infliction of emotional distress defamation privileged communication invasion of privacy wrongful interference trespass and conversion and disparagement of property 2 Unintentional negligence Assault This is a type of intentional tort The threat itself is the tort Contact here is not required There does however have to be a serious threat and the threat has to be reasonable In order to recovery the plaintiff must have had to suffer some sort of consequences Battery This is an intentional tort This occurs when there is societal impremissive touching or contact An example of this could be throwing an object at someone False Imprisonment This is an intentional tort For clarification this does not take place in prison False imprisonment occurs when for example someone is held beyond reasonable proof of suspicion i e shoplifters Be careful and recognize that a threat of future harm is not false imprisonment Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress This is an intentional tort This occurs when there is conduct actions that are extreme enough to have cause emotional distress An example from class was when Ballantine talked about the lady 60 who had a problem with co workers because they kept teasing her with rats It eventually led to emotional problems as well as problems at work Lady sued work for emotional distress Defamation This is an intentional tort This tort has to do with spoken slander or written libel word Monetary loss must be proven with slander which more times than not is hard to do For Defamation 4 requirement must be met 1 False Statement o You must be able to prove that the statement is false 2 Factual in Nature o The statement can and is capable of being true or false Opinions and predictions will not hold in court 3 Communicated 3rd Party o Must be communicated to someone other than the plaintiff and defendant 4 Injury to Reputation o If slander must prove If libel no proof needed Privileged Communications one is not liable for defamation if privilege applies Examples include 1 Public Figures protected unless they have intent or actual malice 2 Qualified those who have a private interest i e employeers 3 Absolute judges and government officials Invasion This is an intentional tort This is a tort if there is invasion by a private party not the government There are 4 types of invasion 1 Appropriation o Using a picture or name in an ad without permission 2 Intrusion to Private Affairs o Invading someone s home or personal property 3 Public Disclosure of Private Information o When someone publically shares information and private facts to an ordinary person who would find that objectionable and embarrassing 4 False Light o Presenting information that places a person in a situation that is not in accordance with their values Wrongful Interference with Contract This is an intentional tort The tort here is to induce another person to breach a prior contract There usually must be a specific casual connection to the breach This tort is established to stop predatory behavior which are actions taken with the intention of unlawful driving competitors completely out of the market Trespass and Conversion This is an intentional tort This happens when there is an improper use and or taking of another s property You can only trespass on real property real estate Trespass and conversion can happen on personal property i e book iPad Conversion happens when the tortfeasor wrongfully converts property for own use Disparagement of Property This is an intentional tort This is essentially the defamation of a thing object rather than a person An example of this would be a publication of false information on a product stating that it is something that it is not Slander of quality is on the product itself Slander of title offends the person selling the product Negligence This is an unintentional tort Fault is involved because you were not careful enough and were not doing what you were supposed to be doing therefore causing injury or hard There are unlimited circumstances The accident usually involves carelessness which injures another A plaintiff can ONLY recover if they meet all 5 requirements 1 Duty you have a duty to not pose risk or injury to others 2 Breach of Duty the physical act of posing risk or injury to someone 3 Injury injury occurs 4 Actual Causation was the defendant a cause for the injury Would it have happened anyways 5 Proximate Causation can you predict the consequences of actions Defenses there are 4 types of defenses 1 Assumption of Risk if the plaintiff knowingly understand AND voluntarily can assume the risk 2 Superseding Cause or Event the chain of causation at some point should be cut off 3 Contributory Negligence where plaintiff is partly at fault ALL OR NOTHING Do not use this today 4 Comparative Negligence This is what is used today Comparison between plaintiff and defendant by percentages Negligence Issues Res Ipsa Loquitur means the thing speaks for itself Negligence per se in and of itself if you violate a law designed to prevent harm risk you do not get to make the argument that even though you violated the law it was safe under these circumstances Danger invites rescue doctrine If you create a risk or circumstance that will lead people to respond to it then all injuries that occur due to the response you can be held liable for it Good Samaritan laws no legal duty to help anyone protects medical professionals who are helping someone who is injured If there is negligence they medical professional cannot be sued under this law Dram Shop Acts bars can be liable