Chapter 6: Intentional Torts

tort

a civil wrong that is not a breach of contract

-identify two different types of wrongfulness, culpability, or fault and define them in varying ways

intent

desire to cause certain consequences or the substantial certainty that those consequences will result from one’s behavior

Recklessness

-sometimes called “willful and wanton conduct”...the conscious indifference to a known and substantial risk of harm created by one’s behavior

-When legal responsibility is assigned in the civil context, often treated as near equivalent of intentional wrongdoing

Negligence

failure to use reasonable care, with harm to another party occurring as a result

Strict liability

liability without fault or, more precisely, liability irrespective of fault

preponderance of the evidence

standard of proof that the plaintiff must satisfy in tort case

compensatory damages

plaintiff recovers as a result of harm suffered from defendant’s wrongful act

punitive damages

not intended to compensate tort victims, but punish flagrant or wrongdoings and deter them from engaging in similar conduct in the future 

(reserved for worst kinds of wrongdoing) 

interference with personal and property rights

two categories of intentional torts

battery

intentional and harmful or offensive touching of another without his consent

requires:

-intent to cause harmful or offensive contact

-intent to cause apprehension that such is imminent

transferred intent

defendant who intends to insure one person but actually injures another is liable to the person injured, despite the absence of any specific desire to injure him 

assault

occurs when there is an intentional attempt or offer to cause harmful or offensive contact with another person

requires:

-necessary intent

-irrelevant whether threatened contact actually occurs

-plaintiff must experience reasonable apprehension of imminent battery

-plaintiff must experience at the time the threatened battery occurs

intentional infliction of emotional distress

most courts allow recovery for severe emotional distress under appropriate circumstances regardless of whether elements of any other tort proven 

-defendant acted intentionally or recklessly

-defendant’s conduct was extreme and outrageous

-the conduct caused the plaintiff emotional distress

-emotional distress was severe

Restatement of Torts (Second)

defendant must intentionally or recklessly inflict the distress in order to be liable

-suggests plaintiffs should be allowed to recover for severe emotional distress resulting form witnessing outragous behavior toward member of immediate family

false imprisonment

intentional confinement of another person for an appreciable time without his consent

-defendants keeping the plaintiff within a circle that the defendant has created

-result from physical barriers to the plaintiff’s freedom of movement

-confinement must be complete

-plaintiff must have knowledge of confinement

invasion of privacy 

four distinct torts:

-intrusion on solitude or seclusion 

-public disclosure of private facts 

-false light publicity 

-commercial appropriation of name and likeness 

intrusion on solitude or seclusion

• constitutes an invasion of privacy if that intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable individual 

• May be physical or nonphysical 

• Applies only where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy

public disclosure of private facts

• Publicizing facts concerning someone’s private life if publicity is highly offensive to a reasonable person 

• ex) concerning someone’s failure to pay debts, humiliating illnesses he has suffered, information about sex life 

• Truth not a defense 

• Publicity - widespread communication of private details 

• No liability attaches to publicity concerning matters of public record or legitimate public interest 

• Public figures and officials have no right of privacy concerning information that is reasonably related to their public lives

false light publicity 

• Places a person in a false light in the public eye if false light would be highly offensive to a reasonable person 

• Required unreaqsonable and highly objectionable attributing to a person’s characteristics that she does not possess or beliefs that she does not hold

commercial appropriation of name and likeness

• Defendant commercially uses someone’s name or likeless to imply her endorsement of a product or service or a nonexistent connection with the defendant’s business 

• Right of publicity - public figures, celebrities, and entertainers have a cause of action against defendants who, without consent use the right holders’ names, likenesses, or identities for commercial purposes 

• Hold that First Amendment protection extended to commercial speech does not insulate defendant against liability for having used plaintiff’s name…etc

• Is speech commercial or noncommercial (shielded by First Amendment) 

• Right of publicity inheritable - may survive after death of celebrity

malicious prosecution

affords a remedy for the wrongful institution of criminal proceedings

-recovery requires proof of:

1) defendant caused criminal proceedings to be initiated against the plaintiff without probable cause to believe that an offense had been committed

2) defendant did so far for an improper purpose

3) criminal proceedings eventually were terminated in plaintiff’s favor

wrongful use of civil proceedings 

designed to protect people from wrongfully instituted civil suits 

abuse of process

•  imposes liability on those who initiate legal proceedings whether criminal or civil for primary purpose other than the one for which the proceedings were designed

deceit (fraud)

formal name for the tort claim that is available to victims of knowing misrepresentations

-Requires proof of false statement of material fact that was knowingly or recklessly made by the defendant with the intent to deceive the plaintiff along with actual, justifiable, and detrimental reliance on the part of the plaintiff 

trespass

any unauthorized or unprivileged intentional intrusion upon another’s real property

• Physically entering the plaintiff’s land 

• Causing another to do so (cahsing someone onto land)

• Remaining on the land after one’s right to remain has ceased 

• Failing to remove from the land anything one has a duty to remove 

• Causing an object or other thing to enter the land 

• Invading the airspace above the land or the subsurface beneath it

private nuissance 

• Involves some interference with the plaintiff’s use and enjoyment of her land 

• Usually does not involve any physical invasion of the plaintiff’s property 

• ex) odors, noise, smoke, light, vibration 

• Interference MUST be SUBSTANTIAL and UNREASONABLE

• Private nuisance 

  • Plaintiff’s landowner has sustained a particular harm of the sort described above –one that pertains to his, her, or its own property 

public nuisance

• Government is appropriate party to seek abatement

conversion

• defendant’s intentional exervice of dominion or control over the plaintiff’s personal property without the plaintiff’s consent 

• Can happen through defendant’s…

  • Acquisition of the plaintiff’s property (fraud, theft) 

  • Removal of the plaintiff’s property 

  • Transfer of the plaintiff’s property 

  • Withholding possession of the plaintiff’s property 

  • Destruction or alteration of the plaintiff’s property 

  • Using the plaintiff’s property

necessary intent 

intent to exercise dominion or control over the property