unit 6
Tort Law
SUNY CRIMINAL & BUSINESS LAW/MUSOLINO
Learning Objectives
1. Differentiate between the objectives of tort
law and those of criminal law This will be
bullet level one
2. Outline the nature of various liability
3. Discuss the element of duty
4. Identify the principal intentional torts and
outline the elements of each
5. Determine the four elements of negligence
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Learning Objectives
6. Contrast contributory negligence,
comparative negligence, and assumption of
the risk
7. Judge in a particular case whether the
doctrine of strict liability applies
8. Discuss the emerging concept of e-tort law
9. Outline the various remedies available in
tort law
10. Discuss the wrongful death and survival
statutes
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Question?
What is a private wrong that injures another
person’s physical well-being, emotional
health, business, property, or reputation?
A. Duty
B. Crime
C. Fault
D. Tort
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Tort Law Defined
• Tort
– a private wrong that injures another person’s
physical well-being, emotional health, business,
property, or reputation
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Tort Law Versus Criminal
Law
• The primary purpose of tort law is to
compensate for the injured party’s loss
• Another objective is to protect potential
victims by deterring future tortious behavior
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Respondeat Superior
• Doctrine of respondeat superior (also
referred to as vicarious liability)
– may impose legal liability on employers and
make them pay for the torts committed by their
employees within the scope of the employer’s
business
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Question?
What is an obligation placed on individuals
because of the law?
A. Tort
B. Admission
C. Duty
D. Function
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The Element of Duty
• A Duty
– an obligation placed on individuals because of
the law
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Intentional Torts
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Intentional Torts
• An Assault
– occurs when the victim is placed in fear or
apprehension of immediate bodily harm by a
tortfeasor who has the present apparent ability to
inflict that harm
– No actual physical contact is needed for an
assault
• A Battery
– involves an offensive or harmful, unprivileged
touching
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Question?
When one party prevents another party from
moving about freely it is called _________.
A. Duty
B. False imprisonment
C. Tort
D. Detention
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Intentional Torts
• False Imprisonment
– When one party prevents another party from
moving about freely
• Defamation
– Any false statement communicated to others that
harms a person’s good name or reputation
– Slander, libel
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Intentional Torts
• Disparagement
– involves any false statement communicated to
others that somehow questions the quality of
property or raises uncertainty as to who has legal
ownership of that property
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Intentional Torts
• Fraudulent misrepresentation
– occurs when false statements or actions, or a
combination thereof, are made by one party in a
way that causes another party to rely on those
misrepresentations and then suffers an injury or
loss as a result.
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Intentional Torts
Invasion of Privacy
• Revelation of confidential records
• Intrusion
• Creating a false light
• Exploitation
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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
– Someone who intentionally or recklessly causes
another individual to undergo emotional or
mental suffering will be responsible, even
without an accompanying physical injury
– The actions complained of must be extreme and
outrageous and cause severe emotional suffering
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Intentional Torts
• Misuse of legal procedure
– occurs when one person brings a legal action
with malice and without probable cause
– Wrongful civil proceedings
– Malicious prosecution
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Negligence
Elements of Negligence
• Legal duty
• Breach of duty
• Proximate cause
• Actual harm
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Elements of Negligence
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Question?
Which defense of negligence involves the
failure of the injured party to be careful
enough to ensure his or her personal
safety?
A. Assumption of the risk
B. Comparative negligence
C. Contributory negligence
D. Causative negligence
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Question?
Which defense of negligence requires courts to
assign damages according to the degree of
fault of each party?
A. Assumption of the risk
B. Comparative negligence
C. Contributory negligence
D. Causative negligence
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Defenses to Negligence
• Contributory negligence
– involves the failure of the injured party to be
careful enough to ensure his or her personal
safety
• Comparative negligence
– statutes that require courts to assign damages
according to the degree of fault of each party
• Assumption of the risk
– involves the voluntary exposure of the victim to
a known risk
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Strict Liability
• Grounds for Strict Liability
– court will hold a tortfeasor liable for injuries to a
victim even though the tortfeasor did not intend
the harm and was not in any way negligent
– generally applied when the harm results from an
ultra-hazardous or very dangerous activity
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Strict Liability
• Product liability
– legal theory that imposes liability on the
manufacturer and seller of a product produced
and sold in a defective condition
• A product in defective condition is
unreasonably dangerous to the user, to the
consumer, or to property
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Electronic Torts
• An electronic tort
– involves the invasion, distortion, theft,
falsification, misuse, destruction, or financial
exploitation of information stored in or related to
an electronic device, including but not limited to
desktop PCs, laptops, mobile phones,
mainframes, phonecams, personal digital
assistants (PDAs), and home computers that
stand alone or are part of a network
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Electronic Torts
• E-defamation
– the communication of false and destructive
information about an individual through the use
of an electronic device
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Electronic Torts
• E-Disparagement
– involves any false statement communicated to
others on the Internet that in some way casts
doubt on the quality of an item of property or a
product offered for sale
• E-invasion of privacy
– the unwelcome intrusion into private matters
initiated or maintained by an electronic device
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Remedies for Torts
• Economic compensatory damages
– those that are directly quantifiable
• Noneconomic compensatory damages
– those that result from injuries that are intangible
and therefore not directly quantifiable
• Punitive damages
– designed to punish the tortfeasor so that similar
malicious actions are avoided by others
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Question?
What is a court order preventing someone
from performing a particular act?
A. Sanction
B. Injunction
C. Ruling
D. Embargo
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Remedies for Torts
• An Injunction
– a court order preventing someone from
performing a particular act
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Survival Statutes
• Survival statutes allow a lawsuit to be
brought even if both the plaintiff and the
defendant are deceased
• Wrongful death statutes preserve the right
to bring a lawsuit only if the death is caused
by the negligence or intentional conduct of
the person who caused the death
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