Blaw Chapter 7 Notes- Intentional Torts

Chapter 7: Intentional Torts 1. All forms of civil liability are either : a. Voluntarily assumed (by contract) b. Involuntarily assumed (imposed by law)- Tort liability 2. Tort law gives persons redress from civil wrongs or injuries to their person, property, and economic interests. a. Assault and battery, automobile accidents, professional malpractice, and products liability. b. The law of tort has 3 objectives: i. To compensate persons who sustained harm or loss resulting from another’s conduct. ii. To place the cost of that compensation only to those parties who should bear it. iii. To prevent future harms and losses. 3. Tort is committed when: a. A duty owed by one person to another b. Is breached c. Proximately causes d. Injury or damage to the owner of a legally protected interest. i. Injuries may be inflicted intentionally, negligently, or without fault (strict liability). e. Punitive or exemplary damages. 4. Tort Reform focused on limiting liability by restricting damages or narrowing claims. 5. Intent does not require a hostile or evil motive; actor desires to cause the consequences of his act or that he believes that those consequences are substantially certain to result from it.

a. Incompetents, like infants, are generally held liable for their intentional torts i. Infant’s age and knowledge are critical in determining whether the infant had sufficient knowledge to form the requisite intent. 6. Harm to the person- primary interests protected by these torts are: a. Battery (Freedom from bodily contract) i. Intentional infliction of harmful or offensive bodily contract (causing serious injury or little or no physical injury) ii. Bodily contract is offensive if it would offend a reasonable person’s dignity (joke/compliment) b. Assault (Freedom from apprehension) i. Intentional conduct by one person directed at another that places the other in apprehension of imminent (immediate) bodily harm or offensive contract. ii. Damages for assault may include compensation for fright and humiliation. iii. The person in danger of immediate bodily harm must have knowledge of the danger and be apprehensive of its immediate threat to his safety. c. False Imprisonment (Freedom from confinement) i. Intentional confining of a person against her will within fixed boundaries if the person is conscious of the confinement and is harmed by it. ii. May be brought by physical force, the threat of physical force (express and implied), physical barriers, or by force directed against the plaintiff’s property. iii. Damages include compensation for loss of time, physical discomfort, inconvenience, physical illness, and mental suffering. d. Infliction of Emotional Distress (Freedom from Mental distress)

i. Recklessness is conduct that evidences a conscious disregard of or an indifference to the consequences of the act committed. ii. Courts impose liability for conduct exceeding all bounds usually tolerated by society when such conduct intentionally or recklessly causes serious mental distress. iii. Does not protect a person from abusive language or rudeness, but rather from atrocious, intolerable conduct beyond all bounds of decency. 7. Harm To The Right of Dignity- (reputation, privacy, right to freedom from unjustifiable ligitation) Defamation

• Defamation is a false communication that injures a person’s reputation by disgracing him and diminishing the respect in which he is held. • A false and defamatory statement concerning another • An unprivileged publication(communication)n to a third party • Depending on the status of the defendant, negligence or recklessness on her part in knowing or failing to ascertain the falsity of the statement • Proof of special harm caused by the publication. • Defenses to Defamation o

Privilege is the immunity from tort liability granted when the defendant’s conduct furthers a societal interest of greater importance than the injury inflicted upon the plaintiff.

o

Absolute Privilege protects the defendant regardless of his motive or intent (statements made by participants in judicial peoceedings, by Congress and by members of state and legislative bodies; by certain executive branch officers, regarding a third party made between spouses when they are alone)

o

Qualified/ Conditional Privilege depends on the use of the privilege (publish defamatory matter to protect his own legitimate interests/ another, letters of reference)

o

Constitutional Privilege- must prove that the defendant published the defamatory and false comment with malice

and negligence/ with knowledge or in reckless disregard Invasion of Privacy

of the truth. • Appropriation is the unauthorized use of the plaintiff’s name or likeness for the defendant’s benefit (Right of publicity protect individual’s right to the exclusive use of his identity.) • Intrusion id the unreasonable and highly offensive interference with the solitude or seclusion of another. o

Improper entry into another’s dwelling, unauthorized eavesdropping upon another’s private conversations, and unauthorized examination of another’s private papers and

Public

records. • Courts impose liability for publicity given to private information about

disclosure

another if the matter made public would be highly offensive and

of Private

objectionable to a reasonable person.

Facts

• Applies only to private • Requires that private facts to be communicated to the public at large or became public knowledge.

False Light

• Applies to truthful private information • Imposes liability for publicity that places another in a false light that is highly offensive if the defendant knew or acted in reckless disregard of the fact that the matter publicized was false. • Matter must be false and must be publicized (not published)

8. Misuse of Legal Procedure a. Malicious prosecutions b. Wrongful civil proceedings c. Abuse of process

9. Harm to Property

Real

• A land and anything attached to it (buildings, trees, and minerals)

property

• Law protects the possessor’s rights to the exclusive use and quiet enjoyment of the land. • Damages include compensation for the resulting diminution in the value of the land, loss of used of the land, and the discomfort caused to the possessor of the land. o

Trespass

o

Nuisance is a non trespassory invasion of an other’s interest in the private use and enjoyment of land (smoke,

Personal

dust, odor) • Chattel, any type of property other than interest in land.

property

• The law protects interest in the property’s physical condition and usability, retention of possession, and availability for future use. o

Trespass- the intentional dispossession or unauthorized use of the personal property of another.

o

May be direct or indirect

o

Conversion is an intentional exercise of dominion or control over another’s personal property.

o

All conversions are trespasses but not all trespassers are conversions.

o

Conversion may consist of the intentional destruction of personal property or use the property in an unauthorized manner.

o

A person who buys stolen property is liable to the rightful owner for conversion regardless the buyer purchases in good faith or without knowledge it was stolen.

10.

Harm to Economic Interests a. Interference with Contractual Relations- intentionally causing one of the parties to a contract not to perform b. Disparagement- publication of false statements about another’s property or products c. Fraudulent Misrepresentation- false statement, made with knowledge of its falsity, intended to induce another to act.

11.

Defenses to Intentional Torts

a. Consent which signifies that one is willing for an act to occur (must be given by an individual with capacity, not effective if given under duress) b. Privilege-self-defense, defense of property, and defense of others, absolute immunity