Chapter 7: Torts Flashcards
Intentional tort
An action that results in harm to a person’s body, reputation, emotional well-being, or property.
What is the Restatement of the Law of Torts, Second?
An authoritative secondary source, written by a group of legal scholars, summarizing the existing common-law, as well as suggesting what the laws should be
Assault
An intentional act that creates a reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive physical contact
Battery
An intentional act that creates a harmful or offensive physical contact
False imprisonment
Occurs whenever one person, through force or the threat of force, unlawfully detains another person against his or her will.
What are the types of intentional torts?
- Assault and battery
- False imprisonment
- Defamation
- Invasion of privacy
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Harm to a person’s property
Define invasion of privacy
An intentional tort that covers a variety of situations, including disclosure, intrusion, appropriation, and false light.
Disclosure
The publicizing of embarrassing private affairs
Intrusion
The unjustified intrusion into another’s private activities
Appropriation
The unauthorized exploitative use of one’s personality, name, or picture for the defendant’s benefit.
False light
The use of a picture or some other means to infer a connection between the person and an idea or a statement for which the individual is not responsible
What is another term for the intentional infliction of emotional distress?
The tort of outrage
Defamation
The publication of false statements that harm a person’s reputation. Must be communicated to a third person
What is the case that led the US Supreme Court to establish special rules for public officials or public figures to sue for defamation?
New York Times Company v. Sullivan
What must a public figure prove in order to sue for defamation?
The public figure must prove that the statement was made with “actual malice”
What are the three types of torts?
Intentional torts, negligence, strict liability
What are the four elements to establish negligence?
- The defendant must owe a duty to the plaintiff to act reasonably
- The defendant must have breached that duty
- Thereby causing
- The plaintiff harm
Negligence per se
Violation of a statute as proof of negligence
Res ipsa loquitur
“The thing speaks for itself”; the doctrine that suggests negligence can be presumed if an event happens that would not ordinarily happen unless someone was negligent
Actual cause
Also known as cause in fact, this is measured by the “but for” standard: but for the defendant’s actions, the plaintiff would not have been injured
Proximate cause
Once actual cause is found, as a policy matter, the court must also find that the act and the resulting harm were so foreseeably related as to justify a finding of liability
What are the defenses to negligence?
- Contributory negligence
- Assumption of the risk.
- Comparative negligence
- Immunities
Contributory negligence
Negligence by the plaintiff that contributed to his or her injury. Normally it is a complete bar to the plaintiffs recovery.
Assumption of the risk
Voluntarily and knowingly subjecting oneself to danger
