Torts Flashcards
What are the intentional torts?
ABC-FITT
Assault
Battery
Conversion
False Imprisonment
IIED
Trespass to land
Trespass to Chattels
Civil Assault
- Intentional
- harmful or offensive contact or imminent apprehension of contact
- Causes P to reasonably apprehend imminent contact
Nominal and punitive damages available
NIED: Theories of Liability
- Zone of danger
- Bystander witnessing close relative injury, OR
- Special relationship
NIED: Bystander Liability
- Close relative injured
- Neg put at risk of immediate bodily harm
NIED: Special situations
- Erroneous announcement of death or illness
- Mishandled corpse; OR
- Contaminated food
Civil Battery
- Intentional
- harmful or offensive contact or imminent apprehension of contact
- Harmful or offensive contact
Nominal and punitive damages are available.
Conversion
- Intentional
- Substantial interference
- with owernship rights
- FMV at time of conversion
Trespass to chattels
- Intentional
- Minor interference
- with ownership rights
- actual damages
IIED
- Intentional or reckless disregard
- Extreme and outrageous conduct
- Causing severe emotional harm
NB: Public figures must show actual malice for publication
Physical injury rarely required except for bystanders
Defamation
- Knowingly or negligently
- Publishing to a third party
- Defamatory statement
- Causing harm
Slander per se
- Serious crimes
- Occupational
- Serious misconduct
- Loathsome disease
Special relationships imposing duty to protect others
PHESCCI: Please Help Eliminate Safety Concerns Causing Injuries
- Parent
- Hospital/patient
- Employer/employee
- Shopkeeper
- Common carrier
- Custodian
- Innkeeper
Special relationship duties - CL
highest duty of care
Special relationship duties - minority view
reasonable care
Special relationship duties - majority view
ordinary care
Landowner duties - CL
- Invitees - inspect for dangers
- Licensees - warn of known defects and reasonable care
- Anticipated trespassers - warn of artificial dangers and reasonable care
- Unanticipated trespassers - no duty
Attractive nuisance
- Artificial condition where children likely to trespass
- at least constructive knowledge of unreasonable harm to children
- Children cannot reasonably appreciate risk
- Risk outweighs utility
- failure to exercise reasonable care to protect children
What level of culpability is required for a defamation claim?
- Private person - Knowledge or Negligent disregard
- Public figure / official - actual malice if a public concern or public figure
Private nuisance
- Substantial and unreasonable interference
- with another’s use or enjoyment of land
NB: where harm outweighs utility is not complete defense
Public nuisance
Interference with the use and enjoyment of property is both (1) substantial in that it is intolerable to a normal person in the community; (2) harm outweighs utility of conduct; (3) different kind of injury than general public
Strict liability for domestic animals
- knew or reason to know about dangerous propensities
- harm arose from propensities
shopkeeper’s privilege
No liability for false imprisonment when:
- Reasonable belief of shoplifting
- Detained for reasonable time and manner
7 Duties to Affirmatively Act?
LACC ASS
Land possessors
Assumption of duty
Creation of risk
Contract
Authority
Special relationships
Statute
Guest statute
Only duty is refrain from gross or wanton and willful misconduct
Negligence per se
- criminal or regulatory state imposes duty
- violated
- P is in intended class
- harm is of intended type
Conclusive presumption (majority); Rebuttable presumption (minority)
Intentional interference with contract
- Valid K (majority: not terminable at will)
- D knew
- Intentionally and improperly interfered
- Caused pecuniary loss
Landowner duties - modern
Duty of reasonable care to protect from foreseeable harm except flagrant (egregious) trespassers
Physician failure to disclose risks
- Failure to disclose caused patient to consent
- Caused physical harm
Privacy torts
- Intrusion upon seclusion
- Appropriation of name or likeness
- Public disclosure of private facts
- False light
Intrusion upon seclusion
- Intentional intrusion
- Private affairs
- Highly offensive to reasonable person
False imprisonment
- Intentional confining or restraining
- Results in confinement
- Plaintiff is conscious of or harmed by it
When does a plaintiff have an obligation to retreat?
Majority: none
Minority: retreat before deadly force except within curtilage