Torts

Question 1

The tort of assault consists of…

Answer 1

(1) a voluntary act;
(2) intended to cause either harmful or offensive contact or apprehension of such contact with another person; and
(3) that causes reasonable apprehension of imminent contact with the other operson.

Question 2

Under the transferred intent doctrine, the intent to commit an intentional tort against one person….

Answer 2

can be transferred to the person actually injured or to the tort actually committed.

Question 3

The doctrine of transferred intent specifically applies to the torts of ….

Answer 3

assault, battery, trespass to land, trespass to chattel and false imprisonment.

Question 4

The mitigation of damages defense can…

Answer 4

decrease the damages the Plaintiff is able to recover.

Question 5

Virginia law recognizes a plaintiff’s duty to mitigate damages in a personal injury action by….

Answer 5

submitting to reasonable medical treatment.

Question 6

The tort of battery consists of:

Answer 6

(1) a voluntary act;
(2) inteded to cause either harmful or offensive contact; and
(3) resulting in harmful or offensive contact to the Plaintiff’s person.

Question 7

Can the “contact” in battery be caused indirectly?

Answer 7

YES

Question 8

The elements required to establish a prima facie case of negligence are:

Answer 8

(1) a duty on the defendant to conform to a standard of care;

(2) a breach of that duty by the plaintiff;

(3) where the breach is an actual and proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury; and

(4) the plaintiff suffered injury as a result.

Question 9

The proximate cause of an event is that act or omission which…

Answer 9

in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by an efficient intervening cause, produces the event, and without which that event would not have occurred.

Question 10

A plaintiff must prove proximate cause by showing there was….

Answer 10

a connection sufficiently close or reasonably foreseeable that it is fair and just to require the defendant to pay for the wrong done.

Question 11

The tort of IIED consists of…

Answer 11

(1) a voluntary act amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct;

(2) committed intentionally or recklessly by the defendant;

(3) causing emotional distress that was severe.

Question 12

Extreme and outrageous conduct must transcend…

Answer 12

all bounds of decency and be utterly intolerable in a civilized society.

Question 13

The distress caused by IIED must be…

Answer 13

so severe that no reasonable person could endure it.

Question 14

Does the transferred intent doctrine apply to IIED?

Answer 14

NO

Question 15

Can a mere insult amount to outrageous conduct sufficient for IIED?

Answer 15

NO

Question 16

Typically, a claim for IIED will not stand in Virginia without….

Answer 16

physical injury resulting.

Question 17

Is the owner of an automobile vicariously liable for a family member’s negligent operation of an automobile by virtue of the family relationship?

Answer 17

NO – Virginia rejects the family purpose doctrine.

Question 18

(TRUE/FALSE): Virginia permits claims for direct liability against parents based on negligent entrustment of a vehicle to a child.

Answer 18

TRUE

Question 19

For a negligent entrustment of a vehicle claim, the Plaintiff must prove that…

Answer 19

the owner of the vehicle knew, or had reason to know, that she was entrusting her vehicle to an unfit driver, likely to cause injury to others.

Question 20

Entrustment may be granted through giving…

Answer 20

express or implied permission.

Question 21

In Virginia, children between what ages are presumed to not have the capacity to commit negligence?

Answer 21

7 and 14.

Question 22

Can a defendant rebut the presumption that a child between 7 and 14 are incapable of committing negligence?

Answer 22

Yes – by showing that the Plaintiff child had the capacity to understand the peril and dangers of their actions.

Question 23

Virginia is a contributory negligence jurisdiction. This means that no plaintiff is entitled to recover for an injury…

Answer 23

proximately caused by the Plaintiff.

Question 24

To show that a child plaintiff’s conduct amounted to contributory negligence, the evidence must show that…

Answer 24

the Plaintiff’s conduct did not conform to the standard of what a reasonable person of like age, intelligence, and experience would do under the circumstances for his own safety and protection.

Question 25

Assumption of the risk is an affirmative defense in Virginia and it operates to…

Answer 25

bar recovery by a Plaintiff based on the subjective inquiry into what the particular plaintiff knows, understands, and appreciates.

Question 26

To succeed with an assumption of the risk defense, the defendant must prove…

Answer 26

that the plaintiff fully understood and appreciated a known danger and voluntarily exposed himself to it.

Question 27

A business owner owes an invitee a duty to…

Answer 27

keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition.

Question 28

A business owner with constructive notice of a hazard on its floor….

Answer 28

breaches its duty to exercise ordinary care in maintaining its property.

Question 29

Constructive notice will be imputed on the business owner if the facts establish that….

Answer 29

the business owner should have known of the hazard through its regular inspection/cleaning.

Question 30

If a landowner warns an invitee of a dangerous condition…

Answer 30

they have satisfied their duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition.

Question 31

A landowner generally does not have a duty to warn invitees of….

Answer 31

open and obvious dangers.

Question 32

To establish a claim of negligence per se, a plaintiff must prove that…

Answer 32

(1) the Defendant violated a statute enacted for public safety;

(2) he belongs to the class of persons for whose benefit the statute was enacted, and

(3) that the statuatory violation was a proximate cause of the injury.

Question 33

A claim based on negligence per se is essentially…

Answer 33

a strict liability claim.

Question 34

In order to successfully assert a claim for the tort of conversion, one must show that….

Answer 34

(1) The Plaintiff has an ownership interest in the property; and

(2) The Defendant interfered with that property interest, depriving the Plaintiff of possession.

Question 35

Conversion claims arise when one shows a…

Answer 35

wrongful exercise of authority over property, inconsistent with another’s lawful ownership right.

Question 36

In Virginia, generally, conversion claims only apply to…

Answer 36

tangible property.

Question 37

Virginia courts have found that an action may lie for conversion of certain intangible property rights if they have been…

Answer 37

documented.

Question 38

Virginia allows for a tort claim for civil conspiracy if…

Answer 38

two or more persons conspire to willfully or maliciously injury someone in their reputation, trade, business, or profession; which actually damages them.

Question 39

A corporation, like an individual, cannot on its own….

Answer 39

commit conspiracy with itself.

Question 40

The Virginia Supreme Court has held that a pre-injury release of liability for negligence is…

Answer 40

void as against public policy.

Question 41

A landowner has no duty to inspect and cut down trees that have the possibility of falling on a public roadway, however, a duty is owed to…

Answer 41

refrain from engaging in any act that makes the roadway more dangerous than it was in its state of nature.

Question 42

The Virginia Good Samaritan Statute provides that if one…

Answer 42

renders emergency aid, without compensation, to any injured person at the scene of an emergency, shall not be liable for civil damages for acts or omissions resulting from the rendering of such care.

Question 43

Holding someone contributorily negligent for taking actions to rescue someone in distress would be…

Answer 43

antiethical to the Good Samaritan statute.