Torts Flashcards
Voluntary
The type of act that is performed while the actor is in conscious control of his or her bodily movement.
Involuntary
The type of act that is reflexive, conclusive, or performed while the actor is unconscious.
Battery
The intentional act of causing a harmful or offensive bodily contact with another person.
Harmful
Contact that impairs the body (in the context of battery).
Offensive
Contact that affronts a reasonable sense of personal dignity (in the context of battery).
Assault
The intentional act of placing another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact.
Trespass to Land
The intentional act of entering or remaining on another person’s real property without permission.
Trespass to Chattels
The intentional act of interfering with another’s personal property.
Actual Consent
A defense to intentional torts based on the Plaintiff’s actual willingness for the otherwise tortious conduct to occur.
Apparent Consent
A defense to intentional torts based on the Defendant’s reasonable belief that the Plaintiff assented to the otherwise tortious conduct.
Implied Consent
A defense to intentional torts based on the Plaintiff’s assent to otherwise tortious conduct is implied as a matter of law or policy, notably in circumstances in which the Plaintiff’s life or health is in danger and the Plaintiff is unable to communicate.
Self-Defense
A defense to intentional torts in which reasonable force is used to protect oneself form the treat of imminent unlawful force by another.
Necessity
A defense to intentional torts that allows a person to interfere with another’s real or personal property interests when such interferences reasonably appear necessary to prevent imminent, substantially greater threat of harm from a natural, non-tortious force.
A person acts with intent to a particular consequence when the person either:
1. has a ______ to cause the consequence; or
2. has ______ that the consequence will result.
- Purpose
- Knowledge with substantial certainty.
The doctrine of transferred intent allows
(1) intent as to one tort to qualify as intent for purposes of another tort, and
(2) intent at to __________.
One person to qualify as intent as to another person.
The tort of false imprisonment involves an intentional act of restraint on another person, causing ________.
That person to be confined within a bounded/limited area.
In the context
In the context of false imprisonment, confinement may be accomplished by a defendant’s
(1) ________,
(2) ________, or
(3) A combination of both.
(1) Words
(2) Acts
In order for a competent adult plaintiff to prove false imprisonment, the plaintiff must show thaht shew as either __________ the confinement.
In order for a competent adult plaintiff to prove false imprisonment, the plaintiff must show that she as either __________ the confinement.
Conscious of or harmed by.
The following elements are required to establish a prima facie case for intentional infliction of emotional distress:
1. Defendant engaged in ______ conduct.
2. Defendant acted either with the intent to cause severe emotional distress or with ________.
3. The conduct caused the plaintiff _______ emotional distress.
conscious of or harmed by.
The following elements are required to establish a prima facie case for intentional infliction of emotional distress:
1. Defendant engaged in ______ conduct.
2. Defendant acted either with the intent to cause severe emotional distress or with ________.
3. The conduct caused the plaintiff _______ emotional distress.
- Extreme and outrageous,
- Recklessness as to whether the conduct will cause severe emotional distress,
- Severe.
For a defendant to be liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress to a plaintiff who was a bystander with respect to the defendant’s conduct, the plaintiff-bystander must show the following elements:
1. Defendant caused ______ to a third-party victim,
2. Plaintiff-bystander is ______ to the victim,
3. Plaintiff-bystander witnessed _____
4. Defendant had _______ of elements (2) and (3),
5. Plaintiff-bystander suffered _______ as a result.
- A physical injury,
- A close relative,
- The defendant’s conduct,
- Knowledge, and
- Severe emotional distress.
For trespass to chattels, in addition to showing the defendant intended to interfere with a chattel, the plaintiff must show either:
1. _____ of the chattel; or
2. Harm to the chattel in the form of physical damage or _____.
- Dispossession
- Impairment of value
In determining whether a defendant’s interference with a plaintiff’s personal property was “serious” for purposes of conversion, a court typically will consider the following factors:
1. the ________ done to the property
2. The _____ of the defendant’s actions and resulting interference or dispossession
3. Whether the defendant’s actions were taken _________
4. The _______ to the plaintiff.
- Severity of the damage
- Extent and duration
- In good faith
- Burden or expense.
What are the five intentional torts for which the doctrine of transferred intent can be applied?
- Battery
- Assault
- Trespass to Land
- Trespass to Chattels
- False imprisonment
A landowner’s duty to an invitee covers both known dangers on the land and ______.
Dangers that a reasonable inspection of the land would detect.
Generally, in determining whether a defendant breached the duty of care, the defendant’s conduct is examined as to whether the defendant behaved as ___________.
A reasonable prudent person would under the circumstances.
A person with special knowledge about a particular thing, which a reasonable person would not have, has a ______ standard of care when performing an act that is related to such knowledge.
Heightened
A person with special knowledge about a particular thing, which a reasonable person would not have, has a ______ standard of care when performing an act that is related to such knowledge.
Heightened
A landowner’s duty to a licensee is to warn about or make safe any _______ on the land.
Already known dangers.
A landowner owes a duty to warn a known or anticipated trespasser of any ________ on the land that pose a risk of death or serious bodily harm
Human-made conditions
A person who enters the land of another falls under one of what three categories of entrants?
- Trespassers
- Licensees
- Invitees
What are the five main elements of a negligence claim?
- Duty
- Breach
- Actual Cause
- Proximate Cause
- Damages
Wrongful Death
The type of claim brought by the representative of a decedent’s estate to recover damages where the defendant’s tortious conduct resulted in the decedent’s death.
Pure economic loss
Financial harm without any physical injury or property damage, which generally is not recoverable in a negligence claim.
Compensatory
The type of damages in a negligence action that encompass items to make the plaintiff’s whole, such as medical bills / lost wages / pain & suffering / decreased property value.
Eggshell Plaintiff
The rule under which a defendant found to be at fault will be liable for the full extent of the plaintiff’s physical injury, even if the full scope was not foreseeable to the defendant due to the plaintiff’s preexisting condition or sensitivity that exacerbated the injury.
Joint Tortfeasors
Multiple defendants who acted together while behaving unreasonably in bringing about a harmful incident, and who all may be treated as causes even if one or more did not directly harm the plaintiff.
Proximate Causation
Doctrine that limits a plaintiff’s recovery from a defendant for injuries that fall outside the scope of liability of that defendant’s negligent conduct due to the harm being unusual or distant from the negligence.
Unlike public necessity, a defendant who successfully asserts the defense of private necessity still is liable for any ______.
Actual damage caused by the defendant’s actions.
The privilege of recapture of chattels, which allows a person to use force to regain possession of personal property taken from the person, is subject to what 3 limitations?
- Property must have been unlawfully taken from the person
- Person must have been acting in hot pursuit (acting without an unreasonable delay)
- Person must have used reasonable, nondeadly force.
Duty
A legal obligation to act with reasonable or ordinary care.
Reasonable Care
Actign with proper conduct in a manner that does not cause foreseeable harm to others.