Torts Flashcards
What is false imprisonment? Must the plaintiff be aware? What types of confinement are included?
False imprisonment requires that a person acts with intent to confine or restrain another person to a bounded area and those actions directly or indirectly result in confinement.
The plaintiff must be aware of the confinement or must suffer actual harm. The confinement may be physical, accomplished through threats, by failure to provide means of escape, or by invalid use of legal authority.
A plaintiff is not imprisoned if he submitted willingly to confinement.
An area is not bounded if there is a reasonable means of safe escape of which the plaintiff is aware.
What is vicarious liability?
An employer is liable for an employee’s torts if the employer has the right to control the employee’s acts and the tortious conduct is committed within the scope of employment.
What is negligence generally?
To prove negligence, the plaintiff must establish that the defendant owed a duty, that it breached that duty, that its actions were both the actual and proximate cause of injury, and that damages resulted.
What duty of care is owed to an invitee?
The duty of care to invitees includes a duty to use reasonable care to conduct reasonable inspections of the property, discover unreasonably dangerous conditions, and protect the invitee from them. The landowner is liable for negligence that causes an invitee to be injured due to unsafe conditions.
What factors will the court consider to determine whether conduct lacks reasonable care?
In determining whether conduct lacks reasonable care, courts consider (i) the foreseeable likelihood that the person’s conduct will result in harm; (ii) the foreseeable severity of any harm that may result; and (iii) the burden of precautions to eliminate or reduce the risk of harm.
When can a plaintiff recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED)?
A plaintiff can recover for NIED from a defendant whose tortious conduct placed the plaintiff in harm’s way if the plaintiff can demonstrate she was within the zone of danger and the threat of physical impact caused emotional distress. There must also (generally) be some physical symptoms.
To recover as a bystander, the plaintiff must be closely related to a person injured by the defendant, be present at the scene, and personally observe/perceive the injury.
