Torts Outline

Torts Outline

Spring 2015

Shelby Moore

***It’s your first semester, and you’re just trying to get the hang of things. Moore has a reputation for being difficult but I PROMISE YOU, when you finish the class, you WILL know torts. However, and I cannot stress this enough, it is IMPERATIVE that you:

1) MOST IMPORTANT: Participate in doing practice essays with Moore. More is better, but the class is divided into two parts (intentional torts and negligence) and you need to do at least one of each + one with both. She prefers that students do this in groups. She is very flexible and is very good about doing whatever she can to help you understand the material. She will meet you after class, on Saturdays, etc. She even stocks her office with food (extra motivation). Moore is VERY specific about how she wants her essays written on her exams and you will NOT be taught this in class. You have to put in the extra effort, and it may seem like a pain, but the first semester is weeding out the weak.

2) Attend the Langdell sessions!

3) Be prepared for class. Read the assigned reading and DO THE CASE BRIEFS. Particularly for her class, but it’s helpful for the first semester in general. Just when you think she’s following the row for recitation, she will punk you.

Purpose for tort law

Provide peaceful means for adjusting the rights of parties who might take the law into their own hands
Deter wrongful conduct
Encourage socially responsible behavior
Restore injured party to their original condition

Vindicate individual rights of redress

INTENTIONAL TORTS

Strict Liability: one is liable for damages to another if one causes the damage

Public Policy: protects right to property and bodily integrity
Usually with dangerous activities (ex: blasting)
Competing public policies: Right to have land free from damage or injury vs. right to adapt your land to a contemplated use
General

the point is not your right to improve property, the point is you’re liable during abnormally dangerous activities
if your activity is a lawful activity, but one where you expect damage, there’s no need to prove negligence because it falls under the strict liability rule due to the nature of the act
if it will, may, or is likely to cause damage, you will have to pay

Exceptions

Lawful intention using ordinary care
Unavoidable accidents

: the voluntary desire to bring about a result, and the belief that the result is substantially certain to occur

Public Policy: deter antisocial behavior, bring disputes to court, take responsibility for actions
Specific Intent: purpose or design/desire to do a given act and accomplishing that act
General Intent: setting in motion a chain of events, knowing with substantial certainty that the outcome is likely to occur

Substantial certainty is not about the specific result, but harm in general

Transferred Intent: the intent for one tort may be transferred to another tort if committed by the same action OR tort meant for one person can be transferred to another person

Applies to: false imprisonment, trespass to land, battery, assault, trespass to chattel (FITBAT)
Excludes: IIED and conversion
Example: when one has the specific intent to commit battery by throwing a rock at someone, and instead commits trespass to chattel when the rock misses and breaks somebody’s window, this specific intent may be transferred
4 circumstances

Intent to commit one tort commit another
Intent to commit one tort commit that tort + another
Intent to harm one person harm another
Intent to harm one person harm another & another tort vs. another person

Tort to tort or person to person

Agency Theory: one uses an implement or other object, including a human being, to accomplish a tort

: intention, harmful or offensive touching of another, directly or indirectly, without justification or excuse

Public Policy: Protect bodily integrity and personal dignity
Rules:

Intentional: not the intent to do harm, but the intent to bring about a result which will invade the interests of another in a way the law forbids

EX: touching someone without their permission is specific intent to invade their personal interest
If the act is intentional the outcome is irrelevant

Harmful or offensive

Offensive touching= is that which the reasonable person would find objectionable

Typically not subjective unless the actor knows the act will cause offense

Harmful= physical or mental injury

Touching

Directly touching someone’s body

Contact with item so intimately connected as to be considered part of that person (ex: knocking someone’s hat off, snatching a plate from one’s hands)

Indirectly can be satisfied in 2 ways:

Agency theory: one is liable for battery if they use an implement to effectuate the touching (ex: throwing a baseball, water balloon)

Children’s Privilege: ch