Chapter 4 Flashcards
A wrongful act (other than a breach of contract) that results in harm or injury to another and leading to civil liability.
Tort
A monetary award sought as a remedy for a breach of contract or a tortious action.
Damages
A monetary award equivalent to the actual value of injuries or damage sustained by the aggrieved party.
Compensatory Damages
Amount awarded to compensate the plaintiff for quantifiable monetary losses, such as medical expenses, property damage, lost wages and benefits (now and future).
Special Damages
An amount awarded to compensate individuals for the non monetary aspects of the harm suffered, such as pain and suffering
General Damages
Monetary damages that may be awarded to a plaintiff to punish the defendant and deter similar conduct in the future.
Punitive Damages
A reason offered by a defendant in an action or lawsuit as to why the plaintiff should not recover or establish what they seek.
Defense
A wrongful act knowingly committed.
Intentional Tort
One who commits a tort.
Tortfeaser
A legal principle under which a person who intends to hard one individual, but unintentionally harms a different individuals, can be liable to the second victim for an intentional tort.
Transferred Intent
Any word or action intended to make another person fearful of immediate physical harm - a reasonably believable threat.
Assualt
Physical contact with another that is unexcused, harmful, or offensive, and intentionally performed.
Battery
Capable of serving as the basis of a lawsuit. It can be pursued in a lawsuit or other court action.
Actionable
Anything published or publicly spoken that causes injury to another’s good name, reputation, or character.
Defamation
Defamation in writing or another permanent form.
Libel
Defamation in oral form.
Slander
These negative opinionated statements are normally not actionable because they are protected under the 1st Amendment.
Statement of Opinion
These negative statements are false and representative of a fact.
Statement of Fact
Truth is the ultimate defense for this. True statements, however disparaging, are not actionable.
Defense for Defamation
A special right advantage, or immunity that enables a person or a class of people to avoid liability for defamation.
Privilege
People who are in the public eye are considered _____.
Public Figures
The deliberate intent to cause harm that exists when a person makes a statement with either knowledge or its falsity or reckless disregard of the truth. This is required to establish defamation against public figures.
Actual Malice
Four acts qualify as ______ of ______:
- ) Intrusion into an individuals affairs or seclusion.
- ) False light
- ) Public disclosure of private facts
- ) Appropriation of identity
Invasion of Privacy
The use by one person of another person’s name, likeness, or other ID characteristics without permission and for the benefit of the user.
Appropriation
Any misrepresentation, by misstatement or omission of a material fact, knowingly made with the intention of deceiving another and on which a reasonable person would and does rely to their detriment.
Intentional deceit for personal gain.
Fraudulent Misrepresentation
Seller’s Talk
Salesperson’s exaggerated claims involve opinions rather than facts and are not legally binding promises or warranties.
Puffery
This type of misrepresentation requires only that the person making the statement or omission did not have a reasonable basis for believing it’s truthfulness.
Negligent Misrepresentation
Wrongful interference with another’s business rights and relationships.
Business Tort
- ) Valid, enforceable contract must exist between 2 parties
- ) A 3rd party must know that the contract exists
- ) The 3rd party must intentionally induce a party to breach the contract
Wrongful Interference with a Business Contract
Business persons are prohibited from unreasonably interfering with another business in their attempts to gain a share of the market.
Difference between competitive behavior and predatory behavior.
Wrongful Interference with a Business Relationship
Not liable for wrongful business interference if it was justified and permissible, such as bonafide competition.
Defenses to Wrongful Interference
Land and things permanently attached to the land.
Real Property
Consists of all other basically moveable items (not land or buildings).
Personal Property
Entry onto, above, or below the surface of land owned by another without the owner’s permission or legal authorizations. If someone causes anything to enter the land owned by another. If someone remains on land owned by another or permits anything to remain on it.
Trespass to Land
Wrongfully taking or harming the personal property of another or otherwise interfering with the lawful owner’s possession of personal property.
Trespass to Personal Property
Wrongfully taking or retaining possession of an individual’s personal property and placing it in the service of another.
Conversion
An economically injurious falsehood about another’s product or property.
Disparagement of Property
The publication of false information about another’s product, alleging that it is not what its seller claims.
Slander of Quality (Trade Libel)
The publication of a statement that denies or casts doubt on another’s legal ownership of property, causing financial loss to that property’s owner.
Slander of Title
The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances.
To succeed in this type of action, plaintiff must prove:
Duty, breach, causation, and damages
Negligence
The duty of all persons to exercise a reasonable amount of care in there dealings with others.
Failure to exercise due care determined by reasonable person standard constitutes the tort of negligence.
Duty of Care
The standard of behavior expected of a hypothetical reasonable person. The standard against which negligence is measured and that must be observed to avoid liability for negligence.
Reasonable Person Standard
A person who is invited onto business premises by the owner of those premises for business purposes.
Business Invitee
Professional misconduct or lack of degree or skill as a professional.
Malpractice
An act or omission without which an event would not have occurred.
Did the problem occur on the defendant’s act or would it have occurred anyways?
Causation in Fact
Legal cause. Exists when the connect between an act and an injury is strong enough to justify imposing liability.
Proximate Cause
For a tort to have been committed, the plaintiff must have suffered legally recognizable injuries.
Injury Requirement and Damages
A defense to negligence that bars a plaintiff from recovering for injuries or damage suffered if they new of and voluntarily assumed risk.
Assumption of Risk
A rule used only in a few states, that completely bars the plaintiff from recovering damages if the damages suffered were partly the plaintiff’s fault.
Contributory Negligence
A rule used in most states, that reduces plaintiff’s recovery in proportion to the plaintiff’s degree of fault, rather than barring it completely.
Comparative Negligence
A doctrine where negligence may be inferred because an event occurred, if it is not the type of event that would not occur in the absence of negligence.
Facts speak for themselves.
Res Ipsa Loquitur
An action or failure to act in violation of a statutory requirement.
Negligence Per Se
State statute stipulating that people who provide emergency services to or rescue someone in peril cannot be sued for negligence unless they acted recklessly and cause further harm.
Good Samaritan Statute
State statute that imposes liability on the owner of bars and taverns as well as those who serve alcoholic drinks to public, for injuries resulting from intoxicated accidents if the sellers/servers contributed to the intoxication.
Dram Shop Act
Liability regardless of fault, which is imposed on those who engaged in abnormally dangerous activities — like people who keep dangerous animals or manufacturers / sellers that introduce into commerce defective and unreasonably dangerous goods.
Strict Liability
