Torts Flashcards
When is Strict Products Liability Available?
Only against Commercial Product Sellers. a strict products liability action is only available against a “person engaged in the business of selling products for use or consumption
Strict Products Liability Definition
One who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer . . . is subject to liability for physical harm thereby caused.
Even a retailer who has no control over the design and manufacture of a product may be found strictly liable if that retailer sells a defective product.
Modern products liability law applies to bystanders as well as purchasers.
Does Charitable Immunity Exist
No, it has been abrogated (removed) from almost all jurisdictions
Defective Product
A product is defective when it is unreasonably dangerous. A product may be defective because it has a manufacturing defect, because it is defective in design, or because it provides inadequate instructions or warnings
Res Ipsa Loquitur
permits the jury to infer negligence when “the event is of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence; . . . other responsible causes . . . are sufficiently eliminated by the evidence; . . . and the indicated negligence is within the scope of the defendant’s duty to the plaintiff.
i.e. don’t know exactly how the negligence occurred but it wouldn’t have happened but for negligence of the person with control.
Alternative Liability Doctrine
Permits the jury to find two defendants liable when each was negligent and either individual could have caused the plaintiff’s injuries. i.e all defendants were being negligent so both can be held jointly and severally liable.
Joint Venture/Joint Enterprise Doctrine
allows the jury to impute one defendant’s negligence to other defendants who are engaged in a common project or enterprise and who have an explicit or implied understanding about how the project is to be carried out.
Intent for Battery
intent, for purposes of establishing a battery, means either that “the actor desires to cause [the] consequences of his act” or that he “knows that the consequences are certain, or substantially certain, to result from his act
Offensive Definition for Battery Claim
A bodily contact is offensive if it offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity
Consent Defense
Consent—“willingness in fact for conduct to occur”—is a defense to battery. Consent “may be manifested by action or inaction and need not be communicated to the actor.” Thus, “[i]f words or conduct are reasonably understood by another to be intended as consent, they constitute apparent consent and are as effective as consent in fact.” Id.
Manufacturing Defect
In order to recover for injuries sustained because of a manufacturing defect, a plaintiff need not show that the manufacturer was negligent. The manufacturer is strictly liable whenever “the product departs from its intended design even though all possible care was exercised in the preparation and marketing of the product
Egg Shell Skull Rule
When an actor’s tortious conduct causes harm to a person that, because of a preexisting physical or mental condition or other characteristics of the person, is of a greater magnitude or different type than might reasonably be expected, the actor is nevertheless subject to liability for all such harm to the person
Defense to False Imprisonment
False imprisonment was necessary in order to protect “some interest of the actor or of the public which is of such importance as to justify the harm caused or threatened by its exercise
Consent is also a defense as long as it exists
Negligence
In any negligence action, a plaintiff must show that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty to conform his conduct to a standard necessary to avoid an unreasonable risk of harm to others, that the defendant’s conduct fell below the applicable standard of care, and that the defendant’s conduct was both the cause in fact and the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.
Determining a Duty
the jury should measure that conduct against the conduct of a reasonable, prudent person engaged in a like activity. A reasonable, prudent person takes precautions to avoid foreseeable risks, even if those risks have rarely materialized. Also consider the effort needed to avoid the risk.
