Chapter 6
PERSONAL INJURY
LAWS
Hot Debate
1. Do you think the manufacturer should be
responsible for paying Shana’s medical
expenses?
2. What defense does the manufacturer have
against a suit for damages for her injury?
Hot Debate Answers
1. If the woodcutting machine was defectively
manufactured, the manufacturer is strictly
liable for the injury. Your neighbor can
recover even thought the warranty has
expired. Even if the manufacturer were not
legally liable, he would still be morally
obligated to pay the medical expenses.
Hot Debate Answers
2. If the product was unreasonably
dangerous due to the defect, the
maker/seller would be strictly liable.
What’s Your Verdict
 Although Josephina was asleep at the
time, has she violated any rights of the
other driver?
What’s Your Verdict Answer
 Josephina committed an offense against
society-the crime against reckless driving.
 She also committed a tort by injuring John
and his property. He can bring a civil suit
against her.
 Her reckless driving caused her to be liable
both criminally and civilly.
How do crimes and torts differ?
 A crime is an offense against society, it’s a
public wrong.
 A tort, is a private or civil offense against
an individual.
 Money damages received as a result of a
tort is intended to compensate for the
injury.
 One act can be both a crime and a tort.
What’s Your Verdict?
 Did Mason commit a tort?
Elements of a Tort
 In a trial, these elements must be proven to
establish legality (legal responsibility)
Elements of a Tort
1. Duty ( a legal obligation to do or not to do
something)
2. Breach (a violation of the duty)
3. Injury (a harm that is recognized by the law)
4. Causation (proof that the breach caused the
injury)
Duty
 The following are the duties created by the tort
of law:
1. The duty not to injure another (including bodily
injury, injury to someone’s reputation, or
invasion of someone’s privacy)
2. The duty not to interfere with the property
rights of others. (for example: trespassing onto
someone’s land)
3. The duty not to interfere with the economic
rights of others, such as the right to contract.
What’s Your Verdict? Duty
 Mason committed a tort because:
1. He owed a duty to the neighbors not
to injure their property.
Breach of Duty or Violation
 A breach (or violation) of the duty
must be proven before the injured
party can collect damages.
What’s Your Verdict? Breach
 Mason committed a tort because:
1. DUTY-He owed a duty to the neighbors
not to injure their property.
2. BREACH-He breached the duty when he
left the fire unattended so it spread to the
neighbor’s property.
Injury
 Some torts require that the breach be
intentional, while in other torts, intent is not
required. (In other words, not ALL torts
require that the defendant intended in injure
the plaintiff.
 Injury resulting from the breach of duty must
be proven.
What’s Your Verdict? Injury
 Mason committed a tort because:
1. DUTY-He owed a duty to the neighbors not to
injure their property.
2. BREACH-He breached the duty when he left the
fire unattended so it spread to the neighbor’s
property.
3. INJURY-The injury occurred when the
neighbor’s house burned.
Causation
 Causation means that breach of the
duty caused the injury.
 When the amount of causation is
great enough for it to be recognized
by the law, it’s called proximate
cause.
What’s Your Verdict? Causation
 Mason committed a tort because:
1. DUTY-He owed a duty to the neighbors not
to injure their property.
2. BREACH-He breached the duty when he left
the fire unattended so it spread to the
neighbor’s property.
3. INJURY-The injury occurred when the
neighbor’s house burned.
4. CAUSATION-Leaving the fire unattended
was a proximate cause of the loss of the
fence, the tool shed, and the house.
What’s Your Verdict?
 Who was liable for Hunt’s injuries?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 Patterson would be liable to Hunt even
though Patterson was only 17 years old.
 Saddleback Stables was liable for the
negligence of its employee Patterson.
 In such cases, the injured party may sue
both employer and employee.
Responsibility for the Torts of
Another
 All people, including minors, are responsible
for their conduct and are therefore liable for
their torts.
 Children and even insane people may be held
liable for injuring others.
 When one person is liable for the torts of
another, the liability is called vicarious
liability.
Responsibility for the Torts of
Another
 With some exceptions, parents are not liable
for the torts of their children.
 In some states, parents are liable, by statue,
up to a specified amount of money for
property damage by their minor children.
 Parents can be liable if they give their
children “dangerous mentalities” such as
guns, without proper training.
What’s Your Verdict?
 Was Hart guilty of a tort?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 Yes, he was guilty of trespass to land,
even though he thought he was in a
national forest.
Common Intentional Torts
 Intentional torts are torts for which
the defendant intended either the
injury or the act.
Assault
 Occurs when one person intentionally threatens
to physically or offensively injure another.
 The threat can be made in words or gestures.
 The threat must be believable, and must be an
ability to carry it out.
 Example: raising a fist
threatening to punch you or
unwanted sexual touching
by threatening to kiss you.
Battery
 A person has a duty to refrain from harmful or
offensive touching of another.
 Examples: Shooting, punching, pushing in
anger, spitting on, or throwing a pie in
another’s face
 Some acts can involve both
assault and battery.
 When you act in self defense,
you have not committed battery.
False Imprisonment
 Depriving a person of freedom of movement
without the person’s consent and without
privilege.
 Examples: being handcuffed; locked in a room,
car, jail; told in a threatening way to stay in one
place
 Sitting in a police car voluntarily, talking to police
about an incident is not false imprisonment.
 Police must have a reasonable basis for arresting
someone, which is a privilege that justifies the
imprisonment.
Defamation
 Statements about people can injure them.
If a false statement injures one’s
reputation, it may constitute the tort of
defamation.
 If spoken, it’s slander
 If written or printed, it’s libel
 A complete defense for slander and libel
must show that the statement is true.
Defamation
Must be false
Be communicated to a 3rd person )one’s reputation is not harmed if
no other person hears or reads the lie)
3. Bring the victim into disrepute, contempt, or ridicule by others
 There is no liability in such cases unless the statement was made
with malice (statement was known to be false when made).
 Public officials, celebrities, judges, lawyers, jurors, witnesses, and
other parties in judicial proceedings are immune from liability for
statements made during the actual trial or hearing.
1.
2.

Example: Eminem's Mother May Drop Defamation LawsuitDebbie Mathers-Briggs tells
British TV show she never intended to sue rapper son for $10 million.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/_article_10115
Invasion of Privacy
 Being entitled to keep personal matters
private.
 Invasion of privacy is the unwelcome and
unlawful intrusions into one’s private life so as
to cause outrage, mental suffering, or
humiliation.
 Examples: two way mirrors in a dressing
room, using a picture or name publically
without permission, opening mail, tapping
phone lines
Invasion of Privacy
 The right to privacy in not unlimited, for
example police may tap telephone lines
secretly if they have a warrant.
 Public figures also give up much of their right
to privacy when they step out into public
domain.
http://commonlaw.findlaw.com/2009/01/hus
band-tapes-wife-in-invasion-of-privacyhidden-video-and-marriage-dont-mix.html
Trespass to Land
 Entry onto the property of another without the
owner’s consent.
 Examples: dumping trash onto another’s
property or breaking the window of a neighbor’s
house.
 Intent is required however, the only requirement
is that the intruder intended to be on the
particular property.
 If a person thought they were walking on their
own property, but was mistaken, there would be
a trespass because she intended to be there.
Conversion
 People who own personal property, such as a diamond ring,
have the right to control their possession and right to
control their possession and their use. A thief may be a thief
or the innocent buyer of stolen goods.
 This right is violated, if the property is stolen, destroyed, or
used in a manner inconsistent with the owner’s rights. If
this happens, a conversion occurs.
 Example: trees are cut down and the lumber hauled from
the land by someone not having clear ownership; or
removing furniture belonging to another from a cohabited
dwelling, placing it in storage and not telling the owner of
the whereabouts and selling it to an innocent buyer.
Interference with Contractual
Relations
 Parties to a contract may be able to breach
the contract if they pay for the injury suffered
by the other party; that is, if they pay
damages. BUT if a 3rd party entices or
encourages the breach the 3rd party may be
liable in tort to the nonbreaching party.
 Example: Renting a house, and the landlord
trying to get you to move out by lying to you
about the house having termites, and then
moving in his friend.
Fraud
 Occurs when there is an intentional
misrepresentation of a existing important
fact (that is a lie).
 The misrepresentation must be relied on and
cause financial injury.
 Examples: using a stolen credit card or check,
wrecking your car purposely or faking an
injury to claim insurance money
What’s Your Verdict?
 Can Yee collect from Britt?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 Britt’s speeding was a breach of the
duty and it is reasonably foreseeable
that speeding will cause injury.
 Speeding was the cause of the
property damage to the station
wagon and the personal injury to Yee.
What is Negligence?
 Negligence is the most common tort.
 Intent is not required for this tort, only
carelessness.
 Like other torts,
negligence involves
the same 4 elements.
Duty and Negligence
 The general duty is the reasonable
person standard.
 This duty requires we act with the
care, and good judgment of a
reasonable person so as not to cause
injury to others.
Duty and Negligence
 For certain individuals, a different degree of
care is applied.
 For example, children under age 7, are
presumed incapable of negligence.
 Older children are only required to act with
the care that a reasonable child of like age,
intelligence, and experience would act.
 If a child undertakes an adult activity, such as
driving a car, the child is held to the adult
standard.
Breach of Duty in Negligence
 The “reasonable person” standard defines the
duty.
 Example: We could conclude that a
reasonable person would drive a car only at a
safe speed, only when sober, and at night
only when the car’s lights are working. Britt in
What’s Your Verdict, engaged in speeding,
driving while intoxicated, and driving at night
without proper lights.
Causation and Injury in Negligence
 The violation of the duty must be the
proximate cause of the injury.
 Example: Britt’s speeding was a
breach of the duty and it’s reasonably
foreseeable that speeding will cause
injury.
3 Defenses to Negligence
 A plaintiff cannot recover for loss caused by
another’s negligence if the plaintiff was
contributorily negligent.
1. Contributory Negligence - occurs when the
plaintiff’s own negligence was a partial cause of
the injury.
 Examples: Yee backed up without looking behind
her, and Britt was speeding, so Yee was
contributory negligent. In state where this is
recognized, Yee could not recover damages from
Britt.
Defenses to Negligence
2. Comparative negligence applies when a plaintiff
in a negligence action is partially at fault. The
plaintiff is awarded damages, but they are
reduced in proportion to the plaintiff’s
negligence.
3. Assumption of the risk is if plaintiff’s are aware
of a danger, but decide to subject themselves to
the risk, that is a defense. Example: walking on a
wet floor when a sign was posted showing,
“caution wet floor” and slipping and falling. You
could not recover damages.
What’s Your Verdict?
 Can she collect in tort from the grocery store
or the bottler?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 Mrs. Lamm could collect from either
the store or the bottler under strict
liability.
What is strict liability?
 Liability that exist even though the defendant
was not negligent.
 Strict liability makes the defendant liable if he or
she engaged in a particular activity that resulted
in injury.
 Proof of both the activity and the injury
substitutes for proof of a violation of a duty.
 Examples: target practice, working with
chemicals, ownership of dangerous animals,
such as bears, lions, snakes, a defective car seat
What’s Your Verdict?
 What can Horsley collect from
Early?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 If Horsley could prove that Early’s
defamation injured her business, she could
probably get damages as compensation.
 If she could prove that Early acted with
malice (deliberate intention to cause
injury) the jury may award her additional
damages.
What can a tort victim collect?
 Damages are a monetary award to the
injured party to compensate for loss.
 The purpose of the award is to place the
injured party in the same financial position as
if the tort had not occurred.
 Usually damages are requested to
considered: reimburse the plaintiff for lost
wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering.
 Punitive damages are always available where
an intentional tort has been committed.
What’s Your Verdict?
 How can the court determine what
really happened?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 If the parties agreed to waive a jury
trial, the judge would listen to the
witnesses, including Claxon and Da
Lucia, and then decide the issues of
fact and law.
How is a civil case tried?
 Judges always decide any issues of law.
 The issues of fact are left to a jury to decide, if
one is sitting.
 In civil cases, there is not always a right to
trial by jury.
 When there is no jury, the judge decides the
issues of both law and fact.
How is a civil case tried?
 Civil juries are composed of 6 to 12 citizens.
 They listen to the witnesses, review physical
evidence, and reach their decisions.
 Usually decisions in civil trials do not have to
be unanimous.
How is a civil case tried?
1. A jury is selected
2. Attorneys make opening statements, briefly
outlines what the plaintiff and the defendant
will try to prove.
3. Evidence (includes anything that the judge
allows to be presented to the jury that helps to
prove or disprove the alleged facts)is
presented, first by the plaintiff and then by the
defendant.
4. Attorneys make closing statements,
summarizing the case, trying to persuade the
judge and jury to favor their side.
How is a civil case tried?
5. Judge give the jury instructions. The judge tells
them what rules of law apply to the case, and
what issues of fact they must decide.
6. Jury deliberates; must decide on whether a
majority of 51% of the evidence supports the
plaintiff’s case.
7. Jury ‘s verdict, in a civil case majority vote is
used.
8. Judgment (final resort) is made by the Judge.
How is a civil case tried? Evidence
 Evidence may consist of written documents,
records, charts, weapons, photographs, and
other objects.
 Testimony consist of statements made by
witnesses under oath. The most common form
of evidence.
 A witness is someone who has personal
knowledge of the facts.
 Sometimes an expert witness (one who
possesses superior knowledge about important
facts) will give an opinion.
What’s Your Verdict?
 What steps could Stevens take to
collect the judgment?
What’s Your Verdict? Answer
 Stevens could get a writ of execution,
because Alvarez refused to pay
voluntarily.
 Writ of execution means the process
by which a judgment for money is
enforced.