Torts

Duty

The legal obligation to exercise reasonable care when an actor's conduct creates a risk of physical harm; it serves a gatekeeping function and is the only negligence element decided by the court rather than the jury.

Nonfeasance

Inaction where the defendant has done no more than make a promise and break it, sustaining an action for breach of contract rather than tort.

Misfeasance

Active conduct where a defendant misperforms a contract or undertaking by doing the wrong thing, thereby augmenting the possibility of tort recovery.

Rescue Doctrine

The common law rule establishing that generally no duty is owed to warn, protect, or rescue another from a risk created by an outside source, subject to specific affirmative duty exceptions.

Pure Economic Loss

Pecuniary or monetary loss suffered by an individual that is not consequent upon injury to their person or property, which is generally not recoverable in tort.

Zone of Danger

A standard in emotional distress claims allowing recovery if the plaintiff narrowly escaped imminent and serious harm to their own physical well-being and suffered resulting mental disturbance.

Licensee

A person who has permission to enter or remain on premises for their own purpose and to whom the premises owner owes only a duty to warn of known hidden dangers and refrain from willful or wanton harm.

Invitee

A person invited onto premises for a purpose connected with the owner's business or activity that benefits the premises owner, owed a duty of reasonable affirmative care to keep the premises safe.

Attractive-Nuisance Doctrine

A doctrine imposing liability on land possessors for physical harm to trespassing children caused by artificial conditions when the possessor knows children are likely to trespass, the condition poses an unreasonable risk, youth prevents realization of the risk, and the burden of eliminating the danger is slight compared to the risk.

Warranty of Habitability

A legal obligation that creates a duty on the part of a lessor to deliver leased premises in a habitable condition.

Reasonably Prudent Person (RPP)

The objective legal standard of care measuring how a person of ordinary prudence would act under the same or similar circumstances.

Emergency Doctrine

A rule providing that an act considered negligent under normal circumstances may not be negligent if performed by a reasonable person faced with sudden, unforeseen, and unexpected danger.

Informed Consent

A standard of care imposing a duty on medical providers to inform patients of treatment options and their material risks, the breach of which voids the patient's consent.

Negligence Per Se

A doctrine where the unexcused violation of a legislative enactment or safety statute conclusively establishes the breach of a duty of care, provided the plaintiff is in the protected class and suffers the type of harm the statute was designed to prevent.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

A doctrine meaning 'the thing speaks for itself,' which allows the factfinder to infer breach of duty when the accident is of a type that ordinarily happens due to negligence and the instrumentality was within the defendant's exclusive control.

Causation In Fact (But-For Test)

A factual inquiry establishing that the plaintiff's harm would not have occurred absent the defendant's tortious conduct.

Substantial Factor Test

A standard for establishing factual causation in cases involving multiple concurrent tortfeasors where the plaintiff cannot prove the defendant was the sole 'but-for' cause of the injury.

Proximate Cause

A legal limit on liability requiring that the plaintiff's injuries fall within the scope of liability and constitute a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's conduct.

Eggshell Skull Doctrine

The rule that a tortfeasor must take the plaintiff as found and is liable for all damages resulting from the aggravation of a pre-existing illness or physical vulnerability.

Superseding Cause

An unforeseeable intervening act or force that breaks the causal connection between the defendant's negligence and the plaintiff's injury, cutting off the defendant's liability.

Nominal Damages

A trivial sum of money, typically one dollar, awarded to vindicate a legal right, establish a matter of record, or serve as a predicate for punitive damages.

Compensatory Damages

Financial awards intended to represent the closest monetary equivalent of the harm suffered, designed to restore the plaintiff to their pre-tort position.

Punitive Damages

An additional sum awarded above compensatory damages to punish the defendant and deter similar egregious conduct in the future, generally capped at a single-digit ratio of $9:1$ relative to compensatory damages.

Remittitur

A judicial ruling reducing an excessive jury verdict award of damages, often giving the plaintiff the option between accepting the reduction or facing a new trial.

Additur

A judicial ruling increasing an inadequate jury verdict award of damages.

Collateral Source Rule

A rule of evidence barring the admission of discounted or gratuitous medical services and third-party payments when assessing the damages owed by a tortfeasor.

Hedonic Damages

Compensatory damages awarded for the loss of enjoyment of life and the inability to engage in normal life activities.

Joint and Several Liability

A liability rule allowing a plaintiff to collect the entirety of an indivisible damage award from any one of multiple joint tortfeasors.

Pure Comparative Negligence

An apportionment rule allowing a plaintiff to recover damages reduced by their own percentage of fault, even if the plaintiff's fault exceeds $50\%$.

Contributory Negligence

A minority common law defense where any fault on the part of the plaintiff, even $1\%$, completely bars recovery against a negligent defendant.

Last Clear Chance Doctrine

An exception to contributory negligence allowing a negligent plaintiff to recover if the defendant had the final opportunity to avoid the harm but failed to exercise reasonable care.

Contribution

A claim allowing a joint tortfeasor who has paid more than their equitable share of an indivisible injury to recover proportionate reimbursement from other liable tortfeasors.

Survival Statute

A statute providing that an existing cause of action for personal injury or property damage survives the death of either the plaintiff or the defendant.

Wrongful Death Statute

A statutory remedy allowing designated statutory beneficiaries to sue a tortfeasor for their own losses, such as loss of support, society, and funeral expenses, caused by the decedent's death.

Feres Doctrine

A federal doctrine barring active-duty military service members and veterans from bringing medical malpractice tort actions against the United States government.

Respondeat Superior

A doctrine of vicarious liability holding an employer strictly liable for torts committed by employees within the course and scope of their employment.

Frolic

An employee's total abandonment of the employer's business to pursue personal interests, taking the conduct outside the scope of employment for vicarious liability.

Detour

A slight, foreseeable deviation from the employer's assigned tasks for personal reasons that remains within the course and scope of employment.

Independent Contractor

A hired party over whom the employer exercises no control concerning the physical details or manner of performance, generally shielding the principal from vicarious tort liability.

Abnormally Dangerous Activity

An activity involving a high degree of unavoidable serious risk that is not a matter of common usage, subjecting the actor to strict liability for resulting harms.

Manufacturing Defect

A product flaw occurring when a physical unit departs from its intended design specifications due to an error in production or quality control.

Design Defect

A defect inherent in an entire product line where the foreseeable risks of harm could have been reduced or avoided by adopting a reasonable alternative design.

Learned Intermediary Rule

A doctrine shielding pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturers from failure-to-warn liability toward consumers if adequate warnings are provided to the prescribing medical professional.

Intent

A state of mind where an actor acts with the specific purpose of producing a consequence, or acts knowing that the consequence is substantially certain to result.

Transferred Intent

A legal fiction transferring intent when a defendant intends one of five traditional trespassory torts (battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land, or trespass to chattels) and causes unintended harm to another person or property.

Battery

An intentional act that causes harmful or offensive bodily contact with the person of another or with an object intimately connected to their person.

Assault

An intentional affirmative act that causes another person to experience reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact, coupled with apparent present ability.

False Imprisonment

The direct, intentional physical confinement or restraint of another person within a bounded area without lawful justification, where the victim is aware of the confinement or harmed by it.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

An intentional or reckless act of extreme and outrageous conduct that causes severe emotional distress exceeding all bounds tolerated by civilized society.

Trespass to Land

An intentional and unauthorized physical invasion, entry, or remaining upon real property in the lawful possession of another, without requiring proof of actual damage.

Trespass to Chattels

An intentional intermeddling with or dispossession of the personal property of another that impairs the chattel's condition, quality, or value, or deprives the owner of its use for a substantial time.

Conversion

An intentional exercise of dominion or control over personal property that so substantially interferes with the owner's rights that the tortfeasor is required to pay its full market value.

Battery

The knowing or intentional touching of another person without their consent that is harmful or offensive.

Crowded World Principle

An exception to battery where context is considered because a certain level of touching may be unavoidable in crowded scenarios, such as on a crowded metro or in a concert venue.

Assault

The intent to cause the plaintiff to fear or anticipate an imminent battery, accompanied by a well-founded, objective fear of battery on the part of the plaintiff.

False Imprisonment

An intentional tort where an actor intends to confine a plaintiff within a limited area without proper privilege, fails to release them when owing a duty to do so, the plaintiff did not consent, and the plaintiff is either aware of the confinement or suffers bodily harm from it.

Confinement

The act of employing a physical barrier, physical force or restraint, duress, or an implied threat of force that causes another to submit rather than attempt to leave when they are unaware of a safe means of exit.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

A tort imposing liability when conduct satisfies four conjunctive elements: (1) intentional or reckless conduct, (2) extreme and outrageous conduct, (3) a causal connection between the wrongful conduct and distress, and (4) severe emotional distress.

Trespass to Land

A tort that occurs when a defendant intentionally enters or causes entry of a tangible thing or person onto the land of an owner or tenant, remains on the land, or fails to remove a tangible item they are duty-bound to remove.

Exclusive Possession

The right of rightful occupants of land that extends both downward into the ground and upward into the air.

Trespass to Chattels

A tort where a defendant, without permission or privilege, uses or intentionally intermeddles with another's chattel resulting in harm, such as decreased condition, quality, or value; substantial loss of use; or bodily harm caused to the plaintiff.

Conversion

An intentional tort in which a defendant intentionally exercises dominion or control over a chattel so seriously that they may justly be required to pay the plaintiff its full value.

Reasonably Prudent Person (RPP)

The standard of care in negligence assessing whether the defendant acted as a reasonable, prudent person would have in the same or similar circumstances.

Emergency Doctrine

An exception to the RPP standard that accounts for unforeseen emergency situations when determining if a breach of duty occurred.

Rescue Doctrine

A doctrine holding that a defendant owes a duty of care to those compelled to rescue an individual who was injured by the defendant's tortious conduct.

Informed Consent

The standard of care requiring healthcare providers to disclose all material risks associated with medical care.

But-for Causation Test

A five-step factual cause test applied when there is a single factual cause for an injury, asking whether the injury would have occurred in a counterfactual scenario where the alleged tortious conduct did not happen.

Substantial Factor Test

A factual causation test used when there are multiple factual causes, determining whether an actor's conduct was a material factor in bringing about the injury.

Foreseeability Test

A proximate causation test determining liability based on whether it was foreseeable at the time of the conduct that such conduct could result in the plaintiff's injury.

Direct Harm Test

A plaintiff-friendly proximate causation test that looks backward from the point of injury to hold defendants liable directly for injuries caused by their conduct.

Joint and Several Liability

A liability rule where a defendant can be held liable for a greater percentage of the damages than their percentage of fault, potentially paying 100% of the damages if co-defendants cannot pay.

Several Liability

A liability rule where a defendant can only be held liable for the exact percentage of damages that is proportional to their own fault.

Contributory Negligence

A traditional common law rule completely barring a plaintiff from recovering any damages if they are found to be even 1% at fault for their injury.

Last Clear Chance Doctrine

An intermediary doctrine softening contributory negligence by allowing a helpless plaintiff to prevail if the defendant had the final opportunity to prevent the accident.

Intervening Cause

A third-party factor that was foreseeable given the situation at the point of breach, which does not sever the defendant's chain of liability.

Superseding Cause

A third-party factor that was not foreseeable given the situation at the point of breach, which severs the causal chain and relieves the initial actor of liability.

Pure Comparative Negligence

A liability system permitting a plaintiff to recover damages from a defendant regardless of fault proportion, even if the plaintiff is more than 50% at fault.

Modified Comparative Negligence

A liability system allowing a plaintiff to recover only if their fault is either strictly less than the defendant's (49% or less) or not greater than the defendant's (50% or less).

Respondeat Superior

A doctrine holding employers legally responsible for the tortious actions of their employees committed within the scope of their employment.

Zone of Danger

An NIED jurisdictional standard prioritizing proximity to an accident, permitting recovery only if the bystander plaintiff was placed in immediate risk of physical harm.

Dillon Factors

A disjunctive NIED test weighing: (1) plaintiff's proximity to the scene, (2) contemporaneous sensory perception of the accident, and (3) close relationship to the victim.

Thing v. LaChusa Rule

A conjunctive NIED test requiring the plaintiff to be closely related to the injured victim, present at the scene observing the event as it causes injury, and suffering serious emotional distress as a result.

Invitee

A person induced to enter real property for the owner's purpose or business benefit, owed a duty of inspection and remediation to cure dangerous conditions.

Licensee

A visitor entering property with the owner's permission for their own purpose (such as leisure or companionship), owed a duty to be warned of known dangers.

Attractive Nuisance Doctrine

A legal rule imposing a duty of care on landowners toward child trespassers when it is foreseeable that children will be drawn onto the land by an artificial condition.

Compensatory Damages

Monetary damages paid by a defendant to restore the plaintiff to their original condition and make them whole for injuries sustained.

Maximum Recovery Rule

A legal rule requiring trial judges to reduce an excessive jury damages award to the maximum amount permitted in the jurisdiction.

Collateral Source Rule

A rule barring a defendant from introducing evidence that a plaintiff received outside funds (such as health insurance payments) to pay for their injuries.

Punitive Damages

Monetary damages awarded above compensatory damages to punish egregious misconduct, restricted by the single-digit ratio rule from exceeding compensatory damages by a factor greater than 9.

Strict Liability

The legal principle under which a defendant is automatically liable for harm caused by abnormally dangerous or risky activities, regardless of the level of care taken.

Manufacturing Defect

A product defect occurring when an item departs from its intended design, even though all reasonable care was exercised during manufacturing and marketing.

Design Defect

A product defect where a foreseeable risk of harm could have been eliminated or reduced by adopting a reasonable, feasible alternative design.

Risk-Utility Test

A design defect test balancing whether the foreseeable risks of a product outweigh its utility, analyzing whether an alternative design is technologically and economically feasible.

Consumer Expectations Test

An older design defect analysis evaluating whether a product performed as safely as an ordinary consumer would reasonably expect.

Learned Intermediary Doctrine

A defense shielding manufacturers from failure-to-warn claims when warnings were given to an informed medical provider expected to advise the patient.

Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)

Federal legislation allowing the United States government to be sued in tort, subject to 13 specific exceptions.

Feres Doctrine

An FTCA exception preventing military service members, family receiving military care, and third-party contractors from suing the federal government for combat- or service-related medical malpractice.

Discretionary Exception

An FTCA exception shielding the government and employees from liability when conduct involves an element of grounded judgment or choice.

Commonwealth v. Peterson

Holds that even assuming a university has a special relationship with its students, it owes no duty of care to warn them of potential third-party criminal acts; the existence of a duty is a question of law.