va torts Flashcards
In Virginia, the plaintiff must prove the intentional infliction of emotional distress by _________________________________ and _________________________________ evidence.
clear
convincing
The normal civil standard – preponderance of the evidence – is not enough.
Virginia law defines false imprisonment as an illegal _________________________________ on the plaintiff’s freedom.
This does not require that the defendant actually _______________________________ the plaintiff.
Once the plaintiff makes out a ___________________________ case of false imprisonment, the burden shifts to the ______ to show that the restraint was legal or justified.
restraint
imprison
prima
defendant
In Virginia, a defendant can convert intangible personal property rights that arise from or that are merged into a _________________________________.
document (stock, promissory note)
The Virginia Good Samaritan law protects from negligence liability anyone who renders emergency care in good faith and without _________________________________.
compensation
The Virginia Good Samaritan law protects anyone who renders emergency obstetrical care to a pregnant woman in active labor for everything but _________________________________ negligence – provided that the pregnant woman’s medical _________________________________ are not readily available.
gross
records
The Virginia Good Samaritan law protects ambulance drivers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel who are on the way to an emergency, as long as they:
Comply with warning lights and siren laws;
Are not _________________________________ negligent; and
Do not engage in _________________________________ or
_________________________________ misconduct.
grossly
willful
wanton
o Under Virginia law, an employer cannot be liable for negligence based on a duty to _________________________________ the employee
o There is no affirmative duty on the employer to act
supervise
o Under Virginia law, there is an _________________________________ presumption that a child under the age of 7 is incapable of negligence.
o There is a _________________________________ presumption that a child between the age of 7 and 14 is legally incapable of negligence because the child lacks the capacity to understand the dangers of whatever he or she is doing.
irrebuttable
rebuttable
o Virginia holds physicians and other healthcare providers to the standard of licensed physicians and other healthcare providers in _________________________________ (a state-wide standard).
o The standard applies both to general practitioners and to ___________________________. o Exception: If the traditional _________________________________ standard can be shown
to be more appropriate in a specific case, the _________________________________ standard is used instead of the state-wide standard.
Virginia
specialists
locality
locality
The Virginia courts say that common carriers and innkeepers have a duty to exercise the _________________________________ care to protect their customers and their guests from personal injury.
Additionally, the common carrier or the innkeeper has a duty to _________________________________ and to protect its customers or guests from reasonably foreseeable injury from the _________________________________ conduct of a third party.
utmost
warn
criminal
Virginia has _________________________________ the common-law attractive-nuisance doctrine; a landowner or land possessor in Virginia cannot be liable for an injury to a trespassing child on an attractive-nuisance theory.
A landowner or land possessor will be liable for leaving an instrument with a _________________________________ danger on part of her land that is easily accessible to children and that is known to be frequented by children (e.g., live electrical wires; explosives)
abandoned
hidden
In Virginia, with respect to invitees, the landowner or land possessor is liable for injuries if the landowner or land possessor _______________________________________________ known that the invitee would not realize or appreciate the danger.
The landowner or land possessor has no duty to protect the invitee from _________________________________ and _________________________________ dangers.
should have
open
obvious
The landowner’s or land possessor’s duty to the invitee extends only as far as the _________________________________ of the invitation.
scope
A host exercises reasonable care for the safety of a child social guest if the host makes sure that the child is ________ by a parent and secures the parent’s permission for the activity leading to the _________________________________.
supervised
injury
A landowner or a land possessor has a duty to carry on her activities with __________ for the safety of her _________________________________.
reasonable care
licensees
The landowner or land possessor is not under a duty merely because she has _________________________________ of prior criminal activity by unknown persons on her land or on nearby land.
But if the landowner or land possessor has knowledge that there is _________________________________ danger of criminal assault, she does have a duty to warn and protect her invitees.
knowledge
imminent
Virginia follows the Third Restatement approach when the “but-for” test fails.
Under this approach, each cause or act that alone would have been a _________________________________ cause of the plaintiff’s harm is regarded as a factual cause of the harm.
o Collectively, those causes are called “multiple _________________________________ causes.”
factual
sufficient
In Virginia in a wrongful death suit, if a physician destroyed any _________________________________ chance that the patient could survive, the physician’s conduct is treated as a proximate cause of the patient’s death.
substantial
In Virginia, the defendant’s act is the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury if the injury was the _________________________________ and proximate consequence of the act and if it was _________________________________.
natural
foreseeable
In order to be a superseding cause and to break the _________________________________ of causation under Virginia law, the intervening cause must completely ________ the defendant’s actions, so that the intervening cause alone produced the plaintiff’s injury, without the defendant’s contributing negligence.
chain
supersede
Virginia follows the traditional _________________________________-source rule about damages.
o Any payments or benefits received by the plaintiff from outside sources are not credited against the damages that the defendant owes the plaintiff.
o Evidence of those payments or benefits are not _________________________________ at trial.
collateral
admissible
The standard for punitive damages in Virginia is that the defendant acted with actual malice or under circumstances amounting to a _________________________________ and _________________________________ disregard of the plaintiff’s rights.
o In a vicarious-liability case, the employer may be liable for punitive damages if the employer participated in the employee’s conduct, authorized the employee’s conduct, or _________________________________ the employee’s conduct .
o Virginia limits punitive damages to $_________________________________ by statute.
willful
wanton
ratified
350k
For negligent infliction of emotional distress, Virginia follows the majority rule and requires that the plaintiff have suffered some _________________________________ injury in order to recover
physical
Virginia has a survival statute, so that any tort action will _________________________________ the death of the plaintiff and/or the death of the defendant.
survive
Virginia does not allow one spouse to sue for loss of _________________________________ by reason of the other spouse’s injuries.
consortium
In Virginia, if the wrongful act, neglect, or default of any person or corporation causes the death of a ______, the ________ can bring an action against that person or corporation.
fetus
fetus’s natural mother
Virginia says that the owner of an automobile is not liable for the torts caused by any person driving the automobile with the owner’s permission unless the owner herself was _________________________________.
negligent
Virginia insurance law requires that an auto-insurance policy include a clause covering anyone who uses the automobile with the owner’s _________________________________ (known as an “omnibus” clause)
permission
In Virginia, a parent is liable for up to $_________________________________ in harm caused by the willful or malicious act of the parent’s child
2500
The Virginia Tort Claims Act limits the tort liability of a _________________________________ employee.
o A plaintiff suing an employee of the Commonwealth of Virginia can recover no more than $_________________________________, or the maximum limit of any applicable insurance policy, whichever amount is _________________________________.
o These limits apply whenever the defendant is a Commonwealth employee who caused _________________________________ damage, personal injury, or death while acting within the _________________________________ of her employment.
state
100k
greater
property scope
Virginia has _________________________________ parental immunity for: o Intentional torts; and
o Motor vehicle accidents.
abolished
Virginia still follows the common-law rule of _________________________________ negligence.
Under this rule, the plaintiff’s contributory negligence acts a complete _________________________________ to her recovery.
Virginia requires two conditions for the defense of contributory negligence:
1. The plaintiff’s negligence is a _________________________________ cause of the plaintiff’s injury; and
2. The plaintiff’s negligence occurs at the same _________________________________ as the defendant’s negligence.
contributory
bar
substantial
time
Exculpatory clauses: The Virginia courts do not allow contracts under which a defendant would be released from liability for _________________________________ negligence that results in personal injury to the other party.
future
In Virginia, the plaintiff’s voluntary assumption of the risk of injury from a known danger acts as a _________________________________ bar to recovery in a negligence action against the defendant.
o Whether the plaintiff actually knew about the risk is determined on a _________________________________ standard.
o The question is generally one for the jury, unless reasonable minds could not differ on the issue.
complete
subjective
Virginia does not impose strict liability on a dog owner.
o By statute, Virginia requires that a dangerous dog (i.e., a dog that has already bitten or attacked other people or animals) be kept securely enclosed and, when taken out, be ______________________ and leashed.
o Failure by the owner to do control a dangerous dog constitutes negligence
_________________________________.
muzzled
per se
Virginia does not recognize _________________________________ liability for products liability cases.
A products-liability case must be brought under a __________ theory or a ____________
strict
negligence
breach-of- warranty theory.
Under Virginia law, a product _________________________________ does not have a duty to supply an accident-proof product.
Instead, the product must be fit for the _________________________________ purposes for which it is to be used.
The standard is the same whether the plaintiff is suing on a negligence theory or a breach-of-_________________________________ theory.
manufacturer
ordinary
warranty
To win on a negligence theory or a breach-of-warranty theory for harm caused by a product, the plaintiff must show two points:
- The product was _________________________________ dangerous, either for the use to which it ordinarily be put or for some other reasonably _________________________________ purpose; and
- This unreasonable dangerousness of the product existed _____________
unreasonably
foreseeable
at the time the product left the manufacturer’s hands.
According to the Supreme Court of Virginia, a product is unreasonably dangerous “if it is defective in assembly or _________________________________, unreasonably dangerous in _________________________________, or unaccompanied by adequate _________________________________ concerning its hazardous properties.”
As to the product design, the manufacturer has “a duty to exercise _________________________________ care to design a product that is reasonably safe for the purpose for which it is intended.”
manufacturing
design
warnings
ordinary
In Virginia, the general rule is that the manufacturer is not liable for every possible misuse of its product; however, the manufacturer may be liable for a _________________________________ misuse of an unreasonably dangerous product.
Lack of _________________________________ is not necessarily a defense in Virginia for a product-liability claim brought on a negligence or a breach-of-warranty theory.
foreseeable
privity
In a claim brought on a theory that the defendant breached an implied warranty, the defendant is not permitted to raise either the plaintiff’s _________________________________ negligence or the plaintiff’s assumption of the _________________________________ as a defense.
contributory
risk
In Virginia, quotations that are _________________________________ attributed to the plaintiff are actionable as defamation regardless of the truth or the falsity of the substance of the quotation as long as the attribution injures the plaintiff’s _________________________________.
falsely
reputation
Virginia does not distinguish between slander and _________________________________.
libel
In Virginia, a broadcaster can be liable for a defamatory
statement made in a radio or television broadcast by a third party only if the broadcaster fails to exercise _________________________________ care to prevent the statement from being broadcast.
due
A broadcaster is not liable under Virginia law for defamatory statements made by or on behalf of _________________________________ candidates.
political
In Virginia, libel per se is actionable _________________________________ proof of special damages.
without
Libel per quod _________________________________ proof of special damages.
In Virginia, a private individual may recover actual, compensatory damages for a defamatory publication if the private individual shows by a _________________________________ of the evidence that:
The publication was _________________________________; and
The defendant either knew it to be false or, believing it to be true, either lacked ___________________ grounds for that belief or acted _________________________________ in failing to ascertain the facts on which the publication was based.
The burden to show falsity is on the _________________________________.
preponderance
false
reasonable
negligently
plaintiff
By Virginia statute, a person is immune from civil liability for defamation based on statements that either:
Relate to a matter of _________________________________ concern that would be protected by the First Amendment; or
Are made at a _________________________________ hearing of a governmental body.
Immunity is lost if the person makes the statements with:
Actual or constructive _________________________________ that they are false; or
_________________________________ disregard for whether the statements are false.
public
public
knowledge
reckless
