TORTS OUTLINE

ABCFITT

Assault-an intentional offer to touch a person against his or her will in a harmful/offensive manner creating a well founded apprehension of an imminent battery with the apparent present ability to affect (carry it out) the battery.

Battery- an intentional touching of a person or something closely associated with that person in a harmful offensive manner or causing actual harm

Conversion - intent to exercise dominion or control or seriously interfere with the chattel(property) of another  (serious interference or ruined beyond repair, completely unusable, pay full value of chattel (market value) example- breaking into apple Hq and stealing and leaking the new iphone info/how to build

False Imprisonment- direct intentional restraint of any person or physical liberty of another without adequate legal justification. (no reasonable means of escape known to plaintiff) Example- forcing someone to stay in a confined place, pointing a gun at them depriving them from leaving. 

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress- 1) conduct has to be intentional or reckless. 2) conduct extreme and outrageous. 3) causal connection between wrongful conduct and ED. 4) severe ED no reasonable person can endure it Example- beating up dad in ront of daughter for sole purpose of scaring daughter, must know its his daughter etc.

Trespass to Land-  unlawful entry to the land of someone else (even overstaying visit 

Trespass to Chattels-  unlawful intentional taking of someone's chattel depriving them of it for a substantial amount of time, damaging the chattel or serious bodily harm is caused by the interference 

Consents- Six types: A mistake will undo consent if defendant knew and took advantage, consent induced by fraud or duress is invalid

1. Actual (expressed): Verbal from plaintiff, 1. Had sufficient mental capacity 2. Voluntary in nature; free from duress, coercion, fraud or error 3. Subjectively willing for defendant’s conduct to occur

2. Apparent-reasonably believe (behavior/act equals conduct)

3. Presumed (Implied)-society acceptable contact (crowded bus) 

4. Sexual- defining actual, apparent, presumed consent apply to sexual conduct

1. Nonconsensual sexual contact with a person is battery

2. Nor verbal or physical resistance required to demonstrate absence of consent

3. Consent to specific sexual act does not mean different sexual act

4. Unwillingness to engage in sexual act or specific sexual act, yet still submitted to act then actor liable for (battery, assault, false imprisonment, IIED) 

5. Inferred-infer actual consent from circumstances

6. Emergency Doctrine-not even conscious; medical 1. immediate/no time to get consent 2. Necessary: life or health  3. Would most likely get person’s permission

Defenses (all)

1. Consent (see above)

2. Self-defense: right to defend oneself with reasonable force (no gun to knife fight).

3. Defense of Others: 

a)  reasonable defense in both real and apparent danger 

b) force used must be reasonably necessary

4. Defense of Property (land): the use of reasonable force, which would otherwise be illegal, to defend your home or other property

*owner is prohibited from willfully or intentionally injuring a trespasser by means of force that either takes life or inflicts great bodily harm

Elements -  Defendant is privileged to use force to defend property so long as:

1. The intrusion is NOT privileged

2. Defendant reasonably believes force is necessary to prevent to terminate the intrusion

3. Defendant demands that the intruder desist before using force

4. Defendant uses only as much force as appears to be reasonably necessary to protect the property

Duty of Retreat: Also known as a "retreat rule." A requirement of the criminal law of some states that you may not claim self-defense if you could have safely retreated, but did not, before using deadly force against an attacker.

5. Recovery of Property - Shopkeeper’s Privilege: 1. Reasonable suspicion, 2. On or near premises (don't have to detain before they leave the store) including a 3. Notification of suspicion/demand for return, using 4. Reasonable force/search and 5. Reasonable detention-some jurisdictions put a time limit on the length of detention.

6. Recovery of Property: where property owner can use reasonable force to reclaim their property that has been wrongfully taken or possessed by another person, but the force used must be proportionate to the situation and generally cannot be deadly; essentially, it allows for self-help measures to retrieve stolen property under certain circumstances, with limitations depending on the jurisdiction.

7. Public Necessity: privilege that justifies the defendant's harming of the plaintiff's property in an effort to prevent great harm to the public as a whole or to a substantial number of persons (if imminent danger-burning or clearing land to create a fire break during wildfire)

8. Defense of Legal Authority: also known as law enforcement privilege (ex. police can enter home with arrest warrant, reporters accompanying them on ride along cannot)

9. Law Enforcement Privilege: a law enforcement officer acting within the scope of employment is privileged to use force against another for the purpose of arresting or otherwise confining someone, investigating, terminating, or preventing crime, or otherwise enforcing the law.

Intent 

1. Intent: A person acts with the intent to produce a consequence if a) the person acts with the purpose of producing that consequence; or b) the person acts knowing that the consequence is substantially certain to result.

2. Single Intent: intent to make contact

3. Dual Intent: intent to cause the contact AND intent to harm/offend

4. Specific Intent: an intention to act and to cause a specific result

5. General Intent: the the state of mind of a person to commit an act, with no ulterior motive or purpose (substantial certainty will result in harm)

6. Transferred Intent: when a defendant intends to harm one individual, but unintentionally harms a second person (ex. of torts with transferred intent are battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land and trespass to chattels). When defendant intends to commit one tort, but commits another. Example- point gun to scare (assault) shoots by accident (TI battery) 

Negligence Notes 

Negligence: is a cause of action for an unintentional tort. A person acts negligently when the person does not exercise reasonable care under all the circumstances. 

4 elements for negligence: Deliver before christmas Day

1. Duty

2. Breach

3. Causation

4. Damages

Duty 

Duty of care is the responsibility one person has to avoid causing harm to others. It's the general obligation to act reasonably to prevent injury or damage.

Standard of care refers to the level of care a person must use in a specific situation to meet that duty. It’s how a reasonable person (or professional, like a doctor or lawyer) should act in a given scenario.

In short:

• Duty of care is the responsibility to act safely.

• Standard of care is the specific level of care expected in that situation.

Breach

-Failing to meet the required standard of care is called a breach of duty. 

- There is no breach if the risk was not reasonably foreseeable. 

Causation 

• A direct link between someone’s actions and the injury is called causation. Causation has two parts

  • 1) Causation in Fact: The injury wouldn't have happened without the action. 

  • 2) Proximate cause: The harm was a foreseeable result of the action. 

Example for causation: Driver running a red light and hitting a pedestrian. If the driver didn’t run a red light then the pedestrian wouldn't have been hit. 

Example for proximate cause: Owner leaves spill on the floor and someone slips. It would be foreseeable someone would slip. 

Negligence per se means someone is automatically considered negligent because they broke a law that was meant to protect people. If the law is violated and it causes harm, they don’t need to prove carelessness because it’s already assumed.

Page 284 : It is now well settled, certainly in this state, that where a statute or municipal ordinance imposes upon any person a specific duty for the protection or benefit of others, if he neglects to perform that duty he is liable to those for whose protection or benefit it was imposed for any injuries of the character which the statute or ordinance was designed to prevent, and which were proximately produced by such neglect.

Professionals is a worker in a business or profession that requires technical knowledge. (Doctor or lawyer).

-An expert testimony is needed when the defendant is a professional. For example if there is a case of a negligent pediatrician, you would get expert testimony from a pediatrician. 

- A professional is held to the objective standard of care of a RPP of that profession under the same circumstances. 

The locality rule says medical professionals must meet the standard of care of other professionals in the community (This rule is DEAD). Medical professionals are now held to the National Standard of care. 

Informed Consent (Medical Professionals)

Informed consent is required of medical professionals. 

There are two standards as to what standards to apply: The reasonable patient or reasonable physician. (California uses the Reasonable Patient Standard)

Reasonable Patient Standard 

• Required to inform the patient that which a reasonable patient would want to know 

• The subjective rule states patients must be informed about 

  • The treatment details

  • Alternative options 

  • Important risk involved 

Reasonable Physician Standard

• Required to inform patients that which a reasonable physician would usually disclose. 

Res Ipsa Loquitur - “the thing speaks for itself”

When you don’t know what happened or who did it

RIL- idk who did it but exclusive control.

1. There was an accident

2. That thing or instrumentality which caused the accident was at the time of and prior there to under the exclusive control and management of the defendant.

3. That the accident was such that in the ordinary cause of events, the defendant using ordinary care, the accident would have not had happened.