Intentional Torts Flashcards
IIED
Intent
To engage in conduct that is extreme or outrageous: goes “beyond all bounds of decency and is utterly intolerable in a civilized community”
That causes P severe emotional distress: an emotional or mental disorder that is recognized and diagnosed by a trained professional, such as neurosis, psychosis, chronic depression, or phobia.
Alienation of affections
Loving marriage
Spouse’s love was destroyed
Defendant’s malicious conduct caused the loss of affection
Criminal conversation
P is in a marriage (not legally separated)
Intercourse between P and third party
False imprisonment
Intent to confine or restrain
Within fixed boundaries
That results in such confinement
Where the P is conscious of the confinement or is harmed by it: use of physical barriers or physical force, direct or indirect threat, by invalid used of legal authority.
NC statutory shopkeepers privilege
No civil liability for a shopkeeper who commits false imprisonment if:
On the shops premises or w/in reasonable proximity
Reasonable time to determine if P stole the item at issue
Probable cause to believe person willfully stole from the store
Trespass to land
Intent to enter the land
To cause physical invasion
Upon the land of another
Liability for flight over land
No liability for a flight over land unless:
It interferes w/ the owner’s current use; or injures the health and happiness of, or be imminently dangerous to, people or property on the land.
Private nuisance
A substantial and unreasonable interference with another’s use and enjoyment of the land.
Think remedies: injunction or damages
Coming to the nuisance
IN NC a D who is an agricultural or forestry operation can raise a coming to the nuisance defense when it has been in operation for more than 1 year and the operation was not a nuisance at the time it began, unless there has been a fundamental change in the operation.
Change in ownership, size, or type of product produced are not fundamental changes.
Consent
A person cannot consent to an unlawful act
Self-defense
A D in his home, car, or place of employment had a reasonable fear of imminent death, and can use deadly force in self-defense w/out having to retreat, if:
An individual was attempting to unlawfully and forcefully enter that place, or was attempting to remove another from that place against his will, and
The D knew or had reason to know that an unlawful and forcible entry was occurring.
Presumption not available if:
Person had a right to be in that place;
Person being removed was a child or grandchild of the person doing the removing;
The person attempting to enter was a police officer who properly identified himself or
The person had discontinued efforts to enter or had exited the place.
Defamation
A defamatory statement: diminishes respect, esteem, or goodwill toward the P, or that deters other from associating with the P.
Made with some degree of fault: if a staetment is made about a public figure/official, the 1st Amendment requires P show actual malice (a knowing lie or reckless disregard for the truth). If private person: NC requires only negligence.
Published to another person: communicated to a third party; includes repeating defamatory statement made by another
Of or concerning the P: the reasonable person would u/s the statement to have been about the P
That damages the P’s reputation
Libel
Written defamation
Libel per se
Statement is obviously defamatory
Special damages may be presumed
Crime involving moral turpitude
Reflecting poorly on trade or profession
Having loathsome disease
Libel per quod
Not obviously defamatory w/out knowledge of extrinsic fact
Damages must be proved
