Torts: Intentional Torts, Negligence, and Strict Liability
Intentional Torts
Battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land and chattels, conversion, and the dignitary torts. Intent requires purpose or substantial certainty. Privileges: consent, self-defense, defense of property, necessity, and arrest.
Negligence
Duty, breach, causation (actual and proximate), and damages. The duty of care is generally reasonable person; special duties for landowners, professionals, and children. Breach is proved by custom, statute (negligence per se), or res ipsa loquitur. Proximate cause requires foreseeability and is limited by intervening causes.
Defenses and Strict Liability
Comparative and contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and immunities. Strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities, wild animals, and defective products. Products liability theories: negligence, warranty, and strict liability, with the risk-utility and consumer expectations tests.
Damages and Other Torts
Compensatory, punitive, and nominal damages; mitigation. Defamation, invasion of privacy, misrepresentation, and interference with contract.
Traps
The classic trap is confusing assault (apprehension) with battery (contact). Another is the unforeseeable plaintiff problem in proximate cause. Res ipsa requires exclusive control and an event that ordinarily does not occur without negligence.
Worked Example
A store owner leaves a banana peel on the floor for hours. A customer slips and falls. The owner owes a duty as a business invitee, breached it by failing to inspect and clean, and the fall is a foreseeable result. Res ipsa may also support the inference.