Chapter 4 & 5 Flashcards
The basic objectives of tort law are:
Preservation of peace
Culpability
Deterrence
Compensation
A tort, a civil or personal wrong.
Negligence
It is the unintentional commission or omission of an act that a reasonably prudent person would or would not do under given circumstances.
Negligence
Negligence or carelessness of a professional person (e.g., nurse practitioner, pharmacist, physician, physician’s assistant).
Malpractice
The reckless disregard for the safety of another (e.g., willful indifference to an injury that could follow an act).
Criminal Negligence
Three forms of negligence
Malfeasance
Misfeasance
Nonfeasance
Performance of an unlawful or improper act (e.g., performing an abortion in the third trimester when this is prohibited by state law)
Malfeasance
Improper performance of an act, resulting in injury to another (e.g., administering the wrong dose of a medication, wrong site surgery involving removal of a healthy left kidney instead of the diseased right kidney)
Misfeasance
Failure to act when there is a duty to act as a reasonably prudent person would in similar circumstances (e.g., failure to administer medications, failure to order diagnostic tests or prescribe medications)
Nonfeasance
The four elements of Negligence:
Duty to care
Breach of duty
Injury
Causation
Obligation to conform to a recognized standard of care.
Duty to care
Deviation from the recognized standard of care.
Failure to adhere to an obligation.
Breach of duty
Actual damages must be established.
If there are no injuries, monetary damages cannot be awarded the plaintiff(s).
Injury
Departure from the standard of care must be the cause of the plaintiff’s injury.
The injury must be foreseeable.
Causation
As a legal obligation of care, performance, or observance imposed on one to safeguard the rights of others.
Duty to care
What a reasonably prudent person would do or not do acting under the same or similar circumstances.
Standard of Care
What conduct is expected of an individual in a given situation.
Standard of Care
The failure to conform to or the departure from a required duty of care owed to a person.
Breach of duty
Includes physical harm, pain, suffering, and loss of income or reputation.
Injury
Requires that there be a reasonable, close, and causal connection or relationship between the defendant’s negligent conduct and the resulting damages
Causation
The reasonable anticipation that harm or injury is likely to result from a commission or omission of an act.
Foreseeability
Whether one of ordinary prudence and intelligence should have anticipated the danger to others caused by his or her negligent act.
test for Foreseeability
One that is committed deliberately
Intentional Tort
Deliberate threat coupled with the apparent present ability to do physical harm to another. No actual contact or damage is necessary
Assault
It is the deliberate threat or attempt to injure another or the attempt by one to make bodily contact with another without his or her consent.
Assault
Is the intentional touching of another’s person in a socially impermissible manner, without that person’s consent. It is intentional conduct that violates the physical security of another
Battery
Is a communication to someone about another person that tends to hold that person’s reputation up to scorn and ridicule.
Defamation of character
Is the verbal form of defamation and tends to form prejudices against a person in the eyes of third persons.
Slander
Is the written form of defamation and can be presented in such forms as signs, photographs, letters, and cartoons.
Libel
Is a legal doctrine that makes some persons or entities responsible for damages their actions or products cause, regardless of “fault” on their part.
Strict Liability
Applies in cases involving the manufacturers of products such as drugs and medical equipment
Strict Liability
Voluntary exposure to such risks as radiation treatments and chemotherapy treatments
Assumption of a risk
Characterized by conduct that is so outrageous that it goes beyond the bounds tolerated by a decent society.
Mental Distress
Occurs when a person does not exercise reasonable care for his or her own safety
Contributory Negligence
Based on the principle that all persons must be both careful and responsible for their acts.
Contributory Negligence
A civil wrong, other than a breach of contract, committed against a person or property (real or personal) for which a court provides a remedy in the form of an action for damages.
Tort
