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BUSINESS LAW [BUS 206]
LECTURE 13
TORT LAW
INTENTIONAL TORT
WHAT IS A TORT?
A tort is committed when [i] a duty owed by one person to another [ii] is breached and
[iii] proximately causes [iv] injury or damage to the owner of a legally protected
interest
Intent in tort law does not require a hostile or evil motive rather denotes either
that the actor desires to cause the consequences of his act or that he believes that
those consequences are substantially certain to result from it
WHAT IS TORT LAW?
Gives persons redress from civil wrongs or injuries to their person, property and
economic interests
Objectives [1] to compensate persons who sustain harm or loss resulting from
anothers conduct [2] to place cost of that compensation only on those parties who
should bear it [3] to prevent future harms and losses
Primary interests protected by these torts are freedom from bodily contact (by the tort
of battery), freedom from apprehension (assault), freedom from confinement (false
imprisonment) and freedom from mental distress (infliction of emotional distress)
Entitle the injured party to recover damages for bodily harm, emotional distress, loss
or impairment of earning capacity, reasonable medical expenses
(a) Battery
May consist of contact causing serious injury such as a gunshot wound or a blow to
the head with a club
May involve contact causing little or no physical injury such as knocking a hat off of a
persons head or flicking a glove in anothers face
Intentional conduct by one person directed at another that places the other in
apprehension of imminent (immediate) bodily harm or offensive contact
Usually committed immediately preceding a battery, but if the intended battery fails,
the assault remains
If you do not give me your book, I will break your arm constitutes an assault
May be brought about by physical force, by the threat of physical force (both express
and implied), by physical barriers or by force directed against the plaintiffs property
Law also protects a person against intentional harm to his right of dignity
Protection includes a persons reputation, privacy and right to freedom from
unjustifiable litigation
(a) Defamation
Burden of proof on the plaintiff to prove the falsity of the defamatory statement
Defenses privilege immunity from tort liability granted when the defendants
conduct furthers a societal interest of greater importance than the injury inflicted upon
the plaintiff
NEGLIGENCE
WHAT IS NEGLIGENCE?
Involves conduct that creates an unreasonable risk of harm
Basis of liability the failure to exercise reasonable care, under given
circumstances, for the safety of another person or his property, which
failure causes injury to such person or damage to his property, or both
Action for negligence consists of five (5) elements:
[i] Duty of care that a legal duty required the defendant to conform
to the standard of conduct established for the protection of others
[ii] Breach of duty that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable
care
[iii] Factual cause that the defendants failure to exercise
reasonable care in fact caused the harm the plaintiff sustained
[iv] Harm that the harm sustained is of a type protected against
negligent conduct and
[v] Scope of liability that the harm sustained is within the scope
of liability which historically has been referred to as proximate cause
STRICT LIABILITY
WHAT IS STRICT LIABILITY?