Chapter 6 Tort Law

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering key terms in tort law, intentional torts, business torts, damages, negligence, and defenses.

Tort

A civil wrong not arising from a breach of contract; a breach of a legal duty that proximately causes harm or injury to another.

Damages

A monetary award sought as a remedy for a breach of contract or a tortious act.

Damage

Harm or injury to persons or property.

Compensatory damages

A money award equivalent to the actual value of injuries or damage sustained by the aggrieved party.

Special damages

An amount awarded to compensate the plaintiff for quantifiable monetary losses, such as medical expenses, property damage, and lost wages and benefits.

General damages

An amount awarded to compensate individuals for the nonmonetary aspects of the harm suffered, such as pain and suffering.

Punitive damages

Money damages that may be awarded to a plaintiff to punish the defendant and deter future similar conduct.

Gross negligence

An intentional failure to perform a manifest duty in reckless disregard of the consequences of such a failure for the life or property of another.

Intentional tort

A wrongful act knowingly committed where the tortfeasor intended the consequences of the act or knew with substantial certainty that specific consequences would result.

Tortfeasor

One who commits a tort.

Transferred intent

A legal principle under which a person who intends to harm one individual, but unintentionally harms a different individual, may be liable to the second victim for an intentional tort.

Assault

Any word or action intended to make another person fearful of immediate physical harm; a reasonably believable threat.

Battery

The unprivileged, intentional touching of another.

False imprisonment

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

Intentional infliction of emotional distress

An intentional act that amounts to extreme and outrageous conduct resulting in severe emotional distress to another.

Defamation

Any published or publicly spoken false statement that causes injury to another's good name, reputation, or character.

Libel

Defamation in writing or in some other form having the quality of permanence.

Slander

Defamation in oral form.

Actual malice

A condition that exists when a person makes a statement with either knowledge of its falsity or reckless disregard for the truth.

Slander per se

Declarations that are actionable without proof of special damages, such as statements alleging a loathsome disease, professional improprieties, serious crimes, or unchastity.

Privilege

The ability to act contrary to another person's right without that person's having legal redress for such acts.

Fraudulent misrepresentation

Any misrepresentation, either by misstatement or omission of a material fact, knowingly made with the intention of deceiving another and on which a reasonable person would and does rely to his or her detriment.

Puffery

A salesperson's exaggerated claims concerning the quality of goods offered for sale.

Malicious prosecution

A tort that occurs when a party initiates a lawsuit out of malice and without a legitimate legal reason, and ends up losing the suit.

Abuse of process

A tort that applies to any person using a legal process against another in an improper manner or to accomplish a purpose for which the process was not designed.

Real property

Land and things permanently attached to the land, such as a house.

Personal property

All items of property other than real property, including cash and securities.

Trespass to land

Entry onto, above, or below the surface of land owned by another without permission or legal authorization.

Licensee

A person who has a revocable right or privilege to come on another person's land.

Trespass to personal property

The intentional interference with an owner's right to use, possess, or enjoy his or her personal property without consent.

Conversion

The wrongful taking, using, or retaining possession of personal property that belongs to another.

Disparagement of property

An economically injurious false statement made about another's product or property; includes slander of quality and slander of title.

Slander of quality

The publication of false information about another's product, alleging that it is not what its seller claims.

Slander of title

The publication of a statement that falsely denies or casts doubt on another's legal ownership of property, causing financial loss to that property's owner.

Predatory behavior

Actions undertaken with the intention of unlawfully driving competitors completely out of the market.

Negligence

The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances.

Duty of care

The duty of all persons, as established by tort law, to exercise a reasonable amount of care in their dealings with others.

Reasonable person standard

The standard of behavior expected of a hypothetical ordinarily prudent person.

Business invitees

People, such as customers or clients, who are invited onto business premises by the owner of those premises for business purposes.

Malpractice

Professional misconduct or the failure to exercise the requisite degree of skill as a professional.

Causation in fact

An act or omission without ('but for') which an event would not have occurred.

Proximate cause

Legal cause; exists when the connection between an act and an injury is strong enough to justify imposing liability.

Good Samaritan statute

A state statute that provides that persons who rescue or provide emergency services to others in peril may not be liable for negligence.

Dram shop act

A state statute that imposes liability on the owners of bars and taverns, as well as those who serve alcoholic drinks to the public, for injuries resulting from accidents caused by intoxicated persons.

Assumption of risk

A defense against negligence that may be used when the plaintiff was aware of a danger and voluntarily assumed the risk of injury from that danger.

Superseding cause

An intervening force or event that breaks the connection between a wrongful act and an injury to another.

Comparative negligence

A theory in tort law under which liability for injuries resulting from negligent acts is shared by all parties who were negligent on the basis of each person's proportionate negligence.

Contributory negligence

A theory in tort law under which a complaining party's own negligence contributed to or caused his or her injuries, acting as an absolute bar to recovery.