Torts

Intentional Torts

Economic harm & dignitary torts

Strict Liability

Negligence

Intent

Against Property

Against Persons

Defenses

Defamation

Fraud/Misrepresentation (intentional assertion of a material false fact that a plaintiff justifiably relied upon and the causes damages to the plaintiff)

Invasion of Privacy

Nuisance

Liability for Animals

Abnormally Dangerous Activity (must create a foreseeable risk of serious harm even with the exercise of reasonable care, and must be an activity that is not a matter of common usage)

Defective Products

Defenses

Defenses

Elements

Comparative fault

Contributory negligence

Assumption of Risk

Duty

Breach (defendant's conduct falls short of the standard of care)

Causation

Damages (actual harm or injury) - include medical expenses and lost earnings; noneconomic damages (such as pain and suffering); and punitive damages

Cause in fact

Proximate cause

Established if the defendant either desires that his act will cause the harmful result or knows with substantial certainty that the result will follow.

Transferred intent: limited to assault, battery, false imprisonment, trespass to land, and trespass to chattels

Assault (reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact)

Battery (harmful or offensive contact with the victim or something closely connected with the victim)

False imprisonment (intentional act that causes a plaintiff to be confined or restrained to a bounded area against plaintiff's will and the plaintiff knows of the confinement or is injured)

Intentional infliction of emotional distress (intentional or reckless and amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct that causes the plaintiff severe mental distress)

Trespass to land (tortfeasor's intentional act is a physical invasion of property)

Trespass to chattels (intentional act that interferes with the plaintiff's chattel, causing harm)

Conversion (intentional act that causes the destruction or serious interference with the plaintiff's chattel)

Self defense (defendant may use force reasonably necessary to protect against injury when he reasonably believes he is being or is about to be attacked)

Defense of others

Defense of property (requires the defendant to request the plaintiff to stop or leave unless it would be futile)

Necessity (requires that injuring plaintiff's property was reasonably necessary avoid a substantially greater harm to the public, to the defendant, or to save the defendant's more valuable property)

Consent (can be express or implied, and the defendant will still be liable if he exceeds the scope of the consent)

Elements: 1) defamatory message 2) of or concerning the plaintiff 3) publication 4) harm to reputation

Types: libel; slander per se

Appropriation of the plaintiff's name or picture

Intrusion on the plaintiff's affairs/seclusion

Publication of facts placing plaintiff in a false light

Public disclosure of private facts about the plaintiff

Public

Private

An unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public

An individual cannot recover personally for public nuisance unless the individual suffers a harm of a kind different from that suffered by other members of the public

An activity or thing that substantially and unreasonably interferes with the plaintiff's use and enjoyment of the land

Interference must be substantial including offensive, inconvenient, or annoying to an average person in the community

Wild animal (almost always strict liability)

Domesticated (arises by statute and depends on owner's knowledge)

Manufacturing (product was dangerous beyond expectation of an ordinary consumer because of a departure from intended design)

Design (plaintiff must show a reasonable alternative design that is a less dangerous modification or alternation and was economically feasible)

Defendant must meet a certain standard of conduct for the protection of others against unreasonable risk

Standard of care (conduct measured against a reasonable, ordinary, prudent person)

Negligence per se (plaintiff must prove that he was in the class intended to be protected by the statute, the harm suffered is the particular harm that the statute was designed to prevent, and the standards of conduct are clearly defined)

Res ipsa loquitur or circumstantial evidence doctrine (the accident that caused the injury would not normally occur unless someone was negligent, and the negligence is attributable to the defendant)

But for the defendant's actions, the plaintiff's injury would not have occurred

Defendants are liable for the normal incidents within the increased risk caused by their acts (test based on foreseeability and is actually a limitation on liability)

Plaintiff's conduct contributed to her injury and is compared to defendant's negligence

Requires that the plaintiff must have known of the risk and still voluntarily proceeded with the action (plaintiff consented to the defendant's action); can be express or implied

Assume it applies in the jurisdiction of the case

Joint and several liability (when two or more tortious acts combine to cause an indivisible injury)

If a plaintiff recovers in full from one defendant, then there is satisfaction and she cannot also recover from the second defendant

Rule of contribution allows tortfeasor that paid to seek recovery for the amount that was more than his share from the other defendant