Chapter 6A Intentional Torts - Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts related to Chapter 6A: Intentional Torts, including definitions of various torts, types of intent, damages, and defenses.

Tort

A private wrong, or a civil injury designed to provide a remedy (damages) for injury to a protected interest.

Crime

A public wrong that requires the wrongdoer to pay a debt to society through a fine or imprisonment.

Tort Damages

Monetary damages sought from the offending party in a civil suit.

Compensatory Damages

Tort damages that reimburse the plaintiff for actual losses.

Special Damages

Quantifiable losses such as medical expenses, lost wages, and benefits.

General Damages

Non-monetary losses such as pain and suffering or damage to reputation.

Punitive Damages

Tort damages designed to punish the wrongdoer.

Intentional Torts

Torts where the tortfeasor (defendant) intends to commit the act or intends the consequences of the act, or knew with substantial certainty that certain consequences would result.

Tortfeasor

The person committing the tort; the defendant.

Criminal Intent: Purposely

A defendant intends to engage in conduct of that nature and intends to cause a certain result; specific intent.

Criminal Intent: Knowingly

A defendant is aware of the nature of the act and its probable consequences, acting with the awareness that the result is practically certain to occur.

Criminal Intent: Recklessly

A defendant consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the bad result or harm will occur.

Criminal Intent: Negligently

A defendant should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk but is unaware of it, even though a reasonable person would be.

Assault

An intentional, unexcused act that creates a reasonable apprehension of fear of immediate harmful or offensive contact, with no contact necessary.

Battery

The completion of an assault; intentional or unexcused harmful, offensive, or unwelcome physical contact.

Defenses to Assault & Battery

Common defenses include consent, self-defense (reasonable force), defense of others (reasonable force), and defense of property.

False Imprisonment

The intentional confinement or restraint of another person’s activities without justification.

Merchant's Privilege

Allows merchants to reasonably detain customers if there is probable cause to believe they have shoplifted items from their store.

Probable Cause (Merchant's Privilege)

A reasonable certainty, based on actual facts and not mere assumptions, that a person has shoplifted items.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

An intentional act that is extreme and outrageous, and that results in severe emotional distress in another, often requiring some physical symptom or illness.

Defamation

Wrongfully hurting a person’s good reputation by making false statements of fact about them.

Slander

Orally breaching the duty to refrain from making false statements of fact about others (defamation).

Libel

Breaching the duty to refrain from making false statements of fact about others in print or media (and internet) (defamation).

Publication Requirement (Defamation)

Communication of a false statement that holds an individual up to hatred, contempt, or ridicule in the community to a third party.

Invasion of Privacy

Interference with a person's fundamental right to solitude and freedom from public scrutiny, including intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light, or appropriation of name/picture.