Intentional Torts

Intentional Torts

1. Purpose of tort law: Tort law is designed to provide relief from acts of civil wrongs or
injuries to their person, property, economic, and other interests.

2. Intent of tort law: The intent of tort law is to accomplish the following:

1) Compensation: Compensate people who sustained harm or loss as a result of someone
else’s conduct.

1) Punitive damages: While the primary purpose of tort law is to compensate, not
punish the wrongdoer, in cases where the behavior that caused the injury were
outrageous, courts will assess punitive damages as a form of punishment. The intent
of assessing punitive damages is to discourage similar outrageous behavior.

2) Allocation of fault: To make sure the person who was responsible for causing the harm
be responsible for making the compensation.

3) Prevent future harm:

3. Connection between tort law and criminal law: In many cases, when a tort law is violated,
a criminal law is violated as well.

Example: Unprovoked, Henry strikes Bill in the face, damaging Bill’s tooth. Bill will be
able to sue Henry for compensation necessary to repair his damaged tooth and for the general
damages he suffered. Henry may also be prosecuted by the District Attorney’s office for
violating the criminal law of battery.

4. Structure of tort law: A plaintiff who is suing for compensation must show the following:

1) Duty: The defendant was under a duty to behave in a certain way.

Example: We all have a duty to drive our cars in a manner that is safe.

2) Breach of duty: The duty was breached in some way. In the case of someone who is
operating a car, the duty to drive safely would be breached if the driver drove under the
influence of drugs or alcohol or disregarded the applicable traffic laws.

3) Causation: The breach of the duty was the cause of the injury. A driver was driving
under the influence of alcohol, lost control of his car, and hit a pedestrian. The driver’s
breach of the duty to drive safely was the cause of the injury.

4) Proximate Cause: The breach of the duty must also be the proximate cause of the injury.
Proximate cause is a public policy issue. Once we determine that a person’s action or lack
of action caused injury to someone, we then ask whether the person should be held
responsible. In some cases, injury may result in a way that could not have been
anticipated. If it could not have been anticipated, steps designed to prevent the injury
could not have been taken. In these cases, should we still hold the person responsible?
This is the issue proximate cause is designed to answer.

5) Damages:

5. Ways in which a tort may be committed: a. Intentionally: A person deliberately breaches a duty and thereby causes harm. Intent, in  the case of tort, refers not to evil or hostile motives. It simply means that the person acted  in order to bring about a certain result or knew or should have known that certain result
would occur by his or her act.

b. Negligently: Where a person’s conduct falls below that of a reasonable person.

c. Strict liability: In certain cases, causation and liability are automatic when a prohibited
event takes place.

6. Scope of tort law: Tort law is designed to provide relief for injury to a person’s physical and
mental well being, business interests, interest in his or her reputation, etc. The following
categories illustrate the wide scope of tort law.

a. Harm to the person: Tort law is designed to provide relief for physical harm, harm to a
person’s feelings, etc. Following are examples of tort laws that are designed to protect a
person’s physical and mental well being.

1) Battery: This is the tort of offensive and unpermitted bodily contact. It may be a
blow to a person’s head or an act as simple as knocking someone’s hat off of his or
her head.

2) Assault: This is an act that places someone in immediate fear of being hit. It is a tort
that falls just short of being a battery.

3) False imprisonment: This is an act whereby a person confines a person against his or
her will. It can be caused by the actual use of force or the threat of force.

a) Detaining shoplifters: Merchants who detain shoplifting suspects who turn out to
be innocent may be charged with false imprisonment. Many states have laws
designed to protect merchants by making exceptions in cases where the detention
is based upon probable cause and for a reasonable period of time.

4) Intentional infliction of emotional distress: This is an act where severe emotional
distress is inflicted upon a person by means of an extreme or outrageous conduct. The
conduct may be caused by an intentional or negligent act. This tort does not apply to
the use of abusive language or to cases of rudeness by one worker to another. A case
of sexual abuse by one worker to another would constitute this tort.

b. Harm to a person’s reputation and interest in privacy:

1) Defamation of character: This is an act in which a false statement is made about a
person to a third party that damages the person’s reputation. If the false statement is
made directly to the person the statement is designed to injury, his or her reputation
would not have been harmed. The false statement must be made to a third party.

a) Slander: Cases where the false information is communicated verbally.

b) Libel: Cases where the false information is communicated through more
permanent means such as writing, video tape, sound recording, etc.

c) Defenses:

(1) Absolute privilege: In some cases, our society has determined that the
interests of society would be furthered by allowing statements, whether true or
not, to be made without fear of lawsuits for slander or libel.

Examples of these situations include: testimony in a court of law, statements
made by the President of the United States or cabinet level members of the
Executive branch of government, statements made in committee or from the
floor of the legislature by the members of the legislative branch, a statement
made by one spouse to another.

(2) Conditional privilege: A conditional privilege allows false statements to be
published without legal consequences in certain cases.

Example: If Thomas, a celebrity, makes a slanderous statement, this
statement is considered to be newsworthy, and a newspaper reporter may
report what Thomas said. In repeating Thomas’s statement, the newspaper
cannot be charged with slander.

2) Invasion of privacy: There are four separate torts in this category. They are all
designed to protect a person’s right to privacy or to protect a person’s property
interest in his or her name.

a) Appropriation
b) Intrusion
c) Public disclosure of a private fact
d) Invasion of privacy

c. Harm to a person’s right to be free from abusive law suits: Three separate torts make
up this category. These torts are designed to prevent an individual from using the legal
process—lawsuits—for an improper purpose.

1) Malicious prosecution
2) Abuse of legal process
3) Wrongful civil proceedings

d. Harm to a person’s property:

1) Trespass: This is the act of entering someone else’s property without his or her
permission. This tort is designed to protect a person’s right to exclusive use or his or
her property.

2) Nuisance: This is the act of interfering with someone’s quiet use and enjoyment of
his or her land.

Examples: Playing music so loudly that it interferes with someone’s use of his or her
land, polluting a stream, causing noxious odors and gas to be emitted.

3) Trespass to personal property: This is the act of unauthorized use or dispossession
of someone else’s personal property.

4) Conversion: This is the act of exercising such control over someone else’s personal
property in such a way that full compensation for the value of the property should be
made.

Example: Mary entrusts her car to a car dealer for the purpose of selling it. The staff
of the car dealership uses the car for personal business and places 8,000 miles on the
car.

e. Harm to business interests:

1) Interference with contract: This is an act that interferes with the performance of an
existing contract.

2) Fraudulent misrepresentation: This is an act whereby a false representation is made
in order to induce certain steps in reliance on the false statement.

Example: A land dealer states that property he is trying to sell will increase in value
because a new shopping mall is scheduled to be built next to his lot. In reliance upon
this statement, a buyer buys his lot. A shopping mall is not scheduled to be built.