1. Chapter 6
Tort Law
6-1

2. Tort Law Defined
• Tort
– Private wrong that injures another person’s physical
well-being, emotional health, business, property, or
reputation
• Tortfeasor
– Person who commits a tort
6-4

3. Tort Law Versus Criminal Law
• The primary purpose is to compensate for the
injured party’s loss
• Also can serve to deter future tortious behavior
6-5

4. Respondeat Superior
• Doctrine of respondeat superior (vicarious
liability)
– Employers might have to pay for their employees’ torts
if the tort is committed while working for the business
• respondeat superior – “let the master respond”
6-6

5. The Necessary Elements
• A Duty
– Obligation placed on individuals because of the law
• Breach of that duty
– Intentional
– Negligent
– Strict liability
• Proximate Cause
• Injury
6-7

6. Intentional Torts
• An Assault
– Victim is placed in fear or apprehension of immediate
bodily harm by a tortfeasor who has the present
apparent ability to inflict that harm
– No actual physical contact is needed
• A Battery
– Involves an offensive or harmful, unprivileged touching
6-8

7. Case: Garratt v. Dailey (Wash. 1955)
• Dailey (age 5) pulls a chair out from under Garratt,
causing her to break her hip.
• Garratt sues for battery
• Trial court rules for Dailey, saying he didn’t intend
the injury, appealed
• Issue:
– If defendant behaved with substantial certainty that
contact would result, then battery occurred.
6-9

8. Case: Vosburg v. Putney (Wisc. 1891)
•
•
•
•
•
Vosberg (P) has injury to knee
Putnye (D) kicked P lightly in same knee
P’s condition worsened and lost use of the leg
P sues
Issue: Is D liable for damages arising from unforeseen
injuries?
• Finding: Yes, intention to do harm is the wrongful act, D
responsible for resulting injuries
• *Eggshell skull rule
6-10

9. Intentional Torts
• False Imprisonment
– When one party prevents another party from moving
about freely
– merchant’s exception
• Defamation
– Any false statement communicated to others that
harms a person’s good name or reputation
– Slander – temporary form (speech)
– Libel – permanent (writing, movies, DVD, etc.)
6-11

10. Defamation
• Under common law, suit can be brought even if no
loss occurred if it involves an accusation of:
1. Committing a serious crime
2. Having a communicable disease
3. Engaging in business, trade, or professional
improprieties
4. An unmarried female being unchaste
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11. 6-13

12. Case: Falwell v. Hustler Magazine (1988)
• Parody ad in Hustler portraying Falwell talking
about his “first time” with Campari
• Falwell sues for defamation and intentional
infliction of emotional distress
• Lower court awards $200,000, appealed to
Supreme court
• Finding: Falwell is a public figure, the ad is not
reasonably believable, Hustler therefore protected
under 1st Amendment
6-14

13. Intentional Torts
• Disparagement
– False statement that questions the quality of property
or raises uncertainty about legal ownership of property
– Plaintiff usually has to demonstrate monetary loss to
recover damages
• Defamation vs Disparagement
– Person vs Property/Product
6-15

14. Intentional Torts
• Fraudulent misrepresentation (Fraud)
– False statements, actions, or a combination thereof,
are made by one party in a way that causes another
party to rely on those misrepresentations and then
suffers an injury or loss as a result.
6-16

15. Intentional Torts
Invasion of Privacy
• Revelation of confidential records
– If a person, working with confidential information,
illegally reveals it (example: health records, etc.)
• Intrusion
– An unwarranted intrusion into a person’s expectation
of privacy
– NC “peeping tom” law
6-17

16. Intentional Torts
Invasion of Privacy (cont.)
• Creating a false light
– Publication of information about a person that paints
him/her in an unfavorable way
• Exploitation
– Using an individual’s photo, likeness, or name without
permission for advertising, marketing, or publicity
– Individuals have the right to use their own likeness to
make money
6-18

17. Intentional Torts
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
– Someone who intentionally or recklessly causes
another individual to undergo emotional or mental
suffering will be responsible, even without an
accompanying physical injury
– The actions complained of must be extreme and
outrageous and cause severe emotional suffering
6-19

18. Intentional Torts
• Misuse of legal procedure
– Someone brings a legal action with malice and without
probable cause
– Wrongful civil proceedings – civil suit
– Malicious prosecution – criminal charges
• Abuse of process
– When a legal process is used as a tactic to pressure
someone to do something he/she would not normally
do
6-20

19. Elements of Negligence
Legal duty
Breach of
duty
Proximate
cause
Actual
harm
6-21

20. Legal Duty
• Legal Duty
– A question of whether the tortfeasor should have
reasonably foreseen a risk of harm to the injured party
– Legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring
that they adhere to a reasonable standard of care
while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm
others
6-22

21. Breach of Duty
• Breach of Duty
– Tortfeasor has not met appropriate standard of care
Standard of care - Based on reasonable person
test
6-23

22. Proximate Cause
• Proximate Cause
– Connection between the unreasonable conduct and
the resulting harm.
– Conduct must be the proximate cause of the victim’s
injuries.
– Was the harm from the conduct foreseeable at the
time of the original action?
6-24

23. Actual Harm
• Actual harm must occur
– Physical harm relatively easy to prove
– Emotional harm harder to prove
6-25

24. Defenses to Negligence
• Contributory negligence
– Failure of the injured party to be careful enough to
ensure his or her personal safety
– If successful, prevents injured party from receiving
damages
– Tortfeasor may be held liable if can prove that he/she
had the last clear chance to avoid injury
6-26

25. Defenses to Negligence
• Comparative negligence
– Statutes that require courts to assign damages
according to the degree of fault of each party
– Ex: if I am 20% at fault for my own injury, can only
recover 80% of the loss
– 50% rule – some states have adopted, says that if
injured party is found to be more than 50% negligent,
cannot recover any damages
6-27

26. Defenses to Negligence
• Assumption of the risk
– Involves the voluntary exposure of the victim to a
known risk
– If injured party was aware of the danger, and by
his/her actions indicated a willingness to be exposed to
that danger, then he/she assumed the risk
– Key issues would be injured party’s awareness of the
extent of the danger, and voluntarily entering the
situation
6-28

27. Strict Liability
• Strict Liability
– Court could hold a tortfeasor liable even though the
tortfeasor did not intend the harm and was not in any
way negligent
– Generally applied when the harm results from an ultrahazardous or very dangerous activity (using explosives,
keeping wild animals, etc.)
6-29

28. Strict Liability
• Product liability
– legal theory that imposes liability on the manufacturer
and seller of a product produced and sold in a
defective condition
• A product in defective condition is unreasonably
dangerous to the user, to the consumer, or to
property
6-30

29. Electronic Torts
• An cybertort
– involves the invasion, distortion, theft, falsification,
misuse, destruction, or financial exploitation of
information stored in or related to an electronic device,
including but not limited to desktop PCs, laptops,
mobile phones, mainframes, phonecams, personal
digital assistants (PDAs), and home computers that
stand alone or are part of a network
6-31

30. Electronic Torts
• Cyberdefamation
– the communication of false and destructive
information about an individual through the use of an
electronic device
6-32

31. Electronic Torts
• Cyberdisparagement
– involves any false statement communicated to others
on the Internet that in some way casts doubt on the
quality of an item of property or a product offered for
sale
• Cyber invasion of privacy
– the unwelcome intrusion into private matters initiated
or maintained by an electronic device
6-33

32. Remedies for Torts
• Economic compensatory damages
– those that are directly quantifiable
• Noneconomic compensatory damages
– those that result from injuries that are intangible and
therefore not directly quantifiable
• Punitive damages
– designed to punish the tortfeasor so that similar
malicious actions are avoided by others
6-34

33. Remedies for Torts
• An Injunction
– a court order preventing someone from performing a
particular act
6-35

34. Survival Statutes
• Survival statutes allow a lawsuit to be brought
even if both the plaintiff and the defendant are
deceased
• Wrongful death statutes preserve the right to
bring a lawsuit only if the death is caused by the
negligence or intentional conduct of the person
who caused the death
6-36

35. The Tort Reform Movement
• Statutes of repose establish a limit in years,
usually but not necessarily 15 years, beyond which
an injured party could not bring a lawsuit for an
injury caused by a product.
• The limitation would be placed on end users.
6-37

36. Question?
When one party prevents another party from
moving about freely it is called _________.
A. Duty
B. False imprisonment
C. Tort
D. Detention
6-38

37. Question?
What is an obligation placed on individuals because
of the law?
A. Tort
B. Admission
C. Duty
D. Function
6-39

38. Question?
What is a court order preventing someone from
performing a particular act?
A. Sanction
B. Injunction
C. Ruling
D. Embargo
6-40

39. Question?
Which defense of negligence involves the failure of
the injured party to be careful enough to ensure
his or her personal safety?
A. Assumption of the risk
B. Comparative negligence
C. Contributory negligence
D. Causative negligence
6-41

40. Question?
Which defense of negligence requires courts to
assign damages according to the degree of fault
of each party?
A. Assumption of the risk
B. Comparative negligence
C. Contributory negligence
D. Causative negligence
6-42

41. Question?
What is a private wrong that injures another
person’s physical well-being, emotional health,
business, property, or reputation?
A. Duty
B. Crime
C. Fault
D. Tort
6-43