Tort Law: Module 6 - Chapter 9

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms and definitions from the lecture on Tort Law, Module 6, Chapter 9.

Tort Law

The branch of law that deals with civil wrongs, other than contractual breaches, that cause injury or harm, leading to legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act.

Tort

A breach of a private duty imposed by the law.

Types of Tort Liability

Categories of torts including intentional torts, torts based on negligence, and strict liability in tort.

Intentional Torts

Torts where the defendant acts with the intent to cause a particular outcome, often overlapping with criminal acts.

Torts based on negligence

Torts where liability arises from a defendant's failure to exercise reasonable care, causing harm to another.

Strict Liability in Tort

Torts where liability is imposed regardless of fault, often for activities considered inherently dangerous.

Assault

To place someone in fear of an immediate unwelcome contact, requiring an act by the defendant, intent, apprehension, and causation.

Battery

An intentional, non-privileged, non-consensual harmful or offensive touching of another, requiring an intentional act, harmful/offensive touching, causation, and damage.

False Imprisonment

The intentional, wrongful confinement of another, requiring an intentional act, confinement, causation, and damage.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

Extreme or outrageous behavior directed towards another, requiring intentional extreme and outrageous conduct, causation, and severe emotional distress.

Invasion of Privacy

Wrongful intrusion or interference with another's privacy expectation, which can involve intrusions into private life, public disclosure of private facts, misappropriation of name/likeness, or putting someone in a false light.

Defamation

The act of harming the reputation of another by making a false statement, which can be slander (spoken) or libel (written).

Slander

A type of defamation that is typically spoken.

Libel

A type of defamation that is typically written.

Absolute Privilege (Defamation)

A complete defense to defamation, typically granted to government and judicial proceedings.

Qualified or Conditional Privilege (Defamation)

A defense to defamation that applies under specific circumstances (e.g., public/private interest, newspaper) and can be overcome if malice or reckless disregard for the truth is proven.

Product Disparagement

A false statement wrongfully defaming another's property interest, including slander of title or trade libel, which injures business or property interests and causes damage.

Slander of title

A type of product disparagement involving a false statement about the ownership or rights to property.

Trade libel

A type of product disparagement involving a false statement about the quality or purity of another's product.

Wrongful Interference with Contracts

Tort liability imposed for intentionally interfering with a plaintiff's existing or prospective economic relationship with third persons, often leading to a breach of contract.

Trespass

Wrongful intrusion upon someone's property interest, which can apply to real property (trespass to land) or personal property (trespass to chattels).

Negligence (Tort of Negligence)

A failure to exercise the ordinary degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the same or similar circumstances, resulting in harm to another.

Prima Facie Cause of Action for Tort of Negligence

The elements required to prove negligence: a voluntary act, breach of a duty of care, proximate cause, and damage/injury.

Voluntary Act (in Negligence)

A volitional act by some part of the body, a necessary element for a negligence claim.

Involuntary Act

Non-volitional acts that are not considered 'voluntary' for the purpose of establishing a negligence claim.

Proximate Causation (Palsgraf)

The legal cause of an injury, often interpreted as whether the injury was a foreseeable consequence within the 'zone of responsibility' of the defendant's actions, as illustrated by the Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad case.

Res Ipsa Loquitor

Latin for 'the thing speaks for itself,' a doctrine where negligence can be inferred from the circumstances of an injury if the event would not ordinarily occur without negligence and the defendant had exclusive control over the instrumentality causing harm.

Strict Liability

Legal responsibility for damages or injury, even if the person found strictly liable was not at fault or negligent. Areas include maintenance of hazardous conditions, harboring wild animals, and product liability.

Damages (Tort Law)

Monetary compensation awarded to a plaintiff for losses or harm suffered as a result of a tortious act.

General Damages

Non-economic damages awarded for intangible losses such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, or loss of enjoyment of life.

Special Damages

Economic damages verifiable losses such as loss of wages, property damage, and medical bills.

Defenses to Negligence

Legal arguments or doctrines that a defendant can use to reduce or negate their liability for negligence, including contributory negligence, comparative negligence, assumption of risk, and sovereign immunity.

Contributory Negligence

A defense to negligence where the plaintiff's own negligence contributed to their injury, which in some jurisdictions can completely bar recovery.

Comparative Negligence

A defense to negligence where the plaintiff's damages are reduced in proportion to the percentage of fault attributed to their own negligence.

Assumption of Risk

A defense to negligence where the plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily exposed themselves to a danger, thereby precluding recovery for subsequent injury.

Sovereign Immunity

A legal doctrine that protects government entities from being sued without their consent.