Wrong Answer Rules Flashcards
True or False: Whenever two or more persons commit tortious acts in concert, each becomes subject to liability for the acts of the others, as well as for his own acts.
True.
Strict liability is available for activities that are abnormally dangerous if:
- the activity creates a risk of serious injury to the plaintiff, his land, or his chattels;
- this risk cannot be eliminated by the exercise of due care;
- the activity is not usually conducted in the area; and
- Plaintiff is injured by the risk that makes the activity dangerous.
In strict liability, a defendant is liable for injuring a plaintiff whether or not the defendant:
exercised due care.
True or false: one factor that may contribute to conduct being extreme and outrageous is that the defendant knew the plaintiff was especially sensitive or vulnerable to injury through mental distress.
True.
A plaintiff generally cannot recover for intentional infliction of emotional distress unless the plaintiff is the target of the defendant’s extreme and outrageous act.
However, a plaintiff can recover for emotional distress caused by seeing the defendant do something extreme and outrageous to another person if:
- *the plaintiff is present when the defendant does the extreme and outrageous thing to the person, *defendant is aware of the plaintiff’s presence, and *the plaintiff is a close family relative of the person who is the target of the defendant’s extreme and outrageous act
or
- *the plaintiff is present when the defendant does something extreme and outrageous to a third person
*defendant is aware of the plaintiff’s presence
*the shock of witnessing the incident is so horrible that it causes the plaintiff to suffer bodily injury rather than just emotional distress.
Pure comparative negligence?
the plaintiff may recover his full amount of damages, less the portion attributed to his own negligence.
The plaintiff is not barred from recovery by his own negligence, but he will have his award reduced, according to the court’s deermination of the plaintiff’s percentage of responsibility for his own injuries.
What is contributory negligence?
the plaintiff is precluded from recovering because his own conduct falls below the stand to which he is required to perform.
The last clear doctrine is applied in contributory negligence, NOT ______
comparative negligence
True or False: Under the last clear chance doctine, the last wrongdoer is viewed as the worst wrongdoer, and should pay. They can recover the full amount of damages if found to have had the last chance to avoid an accident.
True.
Landowner’s duty to licensees
exercise reasonable care with respect to dangerous conditions of which the owner has KNOWLEDGE.
Strict Products Liability
A person engaged in the business of selling a product can be held strictly liable if the product causes harm because it is DEFECTIVE and UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS.
It requires five elements:
- a proper plaintiff who is injured using the defective product, or another foreseeable plaintiff such as a bystander or a rescuer;
- a proper defendant in the chain of distribution;
- a manufacturing defect, a design defect, or a failure to warn;
- causation; and
- damages.
What are two situations where a defendant may held vicariously liable for the torts of an independent contractor?
- The independent contractor undertakes a duty the law does not permit to be delegated to another (i.e., a “nondelegable” duty); and
- A contractor engages in inherently dangerous activities, defined as any activity as to which there is a high degree of risk in relation to the particular surrounding, recognizable in advance as requiring special precautions.
What is the economic loss rule for strict products liability theory?
There is NO RECOVERY on a strict products liability theory if a defect in the product causes damage only to the product itself, as opposed to personal injury or injury to other property.
In such cases, the owner of the damaged product is limited to contract remedies for damage to the product.
True or False: a claim for negligently caused emotional distress must be connected to a physical injury.
True.
A product liability claim based on negligence requires that the defendant:
failed to exercise reasonable care in some manner that was an actual and proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury.
True or False: Retailers and commercial lessors are subject to strict liability for defects in new goods that they sell or lease.
True.
True or False: Commercial lessors are subject to strict liability for defective used goods leased.
True.
True or False: A defendant has no duty of care as to a trespasser whose presence is unknown to him.
The defendant also has no duty to inspect his land to attempt to discover unknown trespassers.
Where natural conditions are involved, the standard of care as to children who trespass is the same as that for the applicable category of adult trepspassers.
True.
True or False: If defective goods are supplied along with services, strict liability is still not applicable so long as the goods supplied were merely incidental to the rendition of the services.
True.
Consent is a defense for intentional torts
What is express consent?
when a person affirmatively communicates permission for another person to act.
Consent is a defense for intentional torts
What is implied consent?
when a reasonable person would interpret a plaintiff’s conduct as permission to act.
a plaintiff may recover for interference with a contractual relation ONLY if:
- the defendant’s action caused a breach of contract
or
- if the defendant somehow interfered with performance of existing contractual duties.
True or false: a failure to renew is not a breach of contract nor interference with performance of existing contractual duties
True.
Sellers of mass-marketed new residences(even construction companies) may be held strictly liable for any defects in a home if:
- the defect that injured plaintiff was in existence at the time it left defendant’s control; and
- intermediate handlers did not mistreat or alter the product.
True or False: Statements of opinion that imply that the person making the statement knows certain facts to be true may be defamatory.
True
True or false: the privilege to use reasonable force to protect one’s property does not extend to the use of force likely to cause serious bodily harm when there is no threat of such harm to oneself.
True.
Negligent misrepresentation requires the plaintiff to show:
- the defendant made a misrepresentation in a business or professional capacity;
- the defendant breached a duty owed to this particular plaintiff;
- there was causation between those actions and the result;
- the plaintiff justifiably relied on the misrepresentation;
- damages resulted.
For negligent infliction of emotional distress, the plaintiff show that:
- she was within the “zone of danger”(i.e. the plaintiff’s distress was caused by a threat of physical impact); and
- suffered physical symptoms from the distress (i.e., the defendant’s conduct caused distress to the plaintiff that manifested in the form of physical symptoms).
A defendant will not be able to invoke the defense-of-others defense when he makes a negligent mistake about whether:
(1) the third party is in physical danger (i.e., unreasonably believes the third party is in danger);
or
(2) the defendant’s proposed physical contact will help avoid danger
a situation where a felony has been committed, a citizen may be privileged in making an arrest if:
he reasonably believes the person is the guilty party.
The citizen’s detention of the suspect will be privileged as long as the length of the detention, the amount of force used, and the means of restraint are reasonable.
Physical injury is NOT required for recovery of an IIED claim. The plaintiff must only prove severe emotional distress as damages.
True
