Miscellaneous Torts Flashcards
What are the five Miscellaneous Torts?
1) Malicious Prosecution 2) Wrongful Civil Proceedings 3) Abuse of Process 4) Tortious Interference with Contractual Relationship 5) Tortious Interference with Prospective Advantage
What is Malicious Prosecution?
What five elements are required for Malicious Protection?
The wrongful institution or continuation of a criminal prosecution against an individual.
Malicious prosecution occurs when one party has knowingly and with malicious intent initiated baseless criminal action against another party.
Requirements:
1) Institution of criminal proceedings against plaintiff 2) termination in plaintiff’s favor 3) absence of probable cause for prior proceedings 4) improper purpose (malice) 5) damages (presumed)
Within Malicious Prosecution, what two elements may establish “absence of probable cause”?
1) Insufficient facts for a reasonable person to believe the plaintiff was guilty 2) Defendant, in fact, did not actually believe plaintiff to be guilty
Within Malicious Prosecution, are Prosecutors immune from liability?
Yes. Under this theory, if prosecutors can be subjected to lawsuits for the decisions they make, they may start second-guessing themselves and become reluctant to file charges except in only the most open-and-shut cases. There’s also a fear that opening prosecutors up to lawsuits could bring a wave of frivolous filings that clog up the court system.
What is a Wrongful Civil Proceeding?
What five elements are required for Wrongful Civil Proceedings?
The wrongful institution or continuation of a civil proceeding against an individual.
Wrongful Civil Action occurs when one party has knowingly and with malicious intent initiated baseless civil litigation against another party.
Requirements:
1) Institution of civil proceedings against plaintiff 2) termination in plaintiff’s favor 3) absence of probable cause for prior proceedings 4) improper purpose (malice) 5) damages (not presumed and must be proved)
Within Wrongful Civil Proceedings, what two elements may establish “absence of probable cause”?
1) Insufficient facts for reasonable person to believe the plaintiff was liable 2) Defendant, in fact, did not actually believe plaintiff to be liable
What two elements are required for Abuse of Process?
1) Defendant’s use of legal process 2) Defendants purpose of the process is other than that for which the process was designed.
What is Abuse of Process?
Abuse of process arises when a person deliberately misuses a court process that is not justified by the underlying civil or criminal legal action.
A intentional tort whereby the defendant, in furtherance of an ulterior purpose, uses the legal process in an improper way, generally where the defendant is seeking some collateral advantage outside the legitimate ends of the legal process.
What is Tortious Interference with Contractual Relationship?
What four elements are required for Tortious Interference with Contractual Relationship?
A cause of action against a person for wrongfully intruding upon a contractual relationship. Occurs when one person intentionally damages someone else’s contractual relationship with a third party causing economic harm.
1) Valid contractual relationship between plaintiff and third party 2) defendant knows of this relationship 3) intentional interference by defendant to terminate relationship (includes intentionally making performance more difficult than reasonably expected) 4) damage to plaintiff
What is Tortious Interference with Prospective Advantage?
What four elements are required for Tortious Interference with Prospective Advantage?
A cause of action against a person for wrongfully intruding upon a prospective business relationship. Occurs when one person intentionally damages someone else’s prospective business relationship with a third party causing economic harm.
1) Valid business expectancy between plaintiff and third party 2) defendant knows of this expectancy 3) intentional interference by plaintiff to terminate this expectancy 4) damage to plaintiff
Within Tortious Interference with Prospective Advantage, what two events constitute a valid business expectancy between the plaintiff and a third party?
1) No valid contractual relationship exists 2) The plaintiff reasonably expects a future business relationship
What defense is available for Tortious Interference?
Business Privilege
Within Tortious Interference, what two elements relating to purpose and method are required to satisfy the defense of Business Privilege?
1) Defendant has a justifiable purpose, and 2) Defendant uses a justifiable method
Within defenses to Tortious Interference - Business Privilege, what constitutes a “justifiable purpose”, for interference by the defendant?
1) Defendant’s own business interest 2) Public interest
