Torts
Torts tests civil wrongs and compensation: negligence, intentional torts, strict liability, defamation, nuisance, trespass, conversion, and defenses. Liberian courts apply common-law tort principles.
Core rules
- Negligence requires duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages. The standard is the reasonable person.
- Intentional torts require intent or substantial certainty. Battery is harmful or offensive contact; assault is apprehension of imminent contact; false imprisonment is confinement without consent.
- Defamation requires a false statement of fact, publication, fault, and harm to reputation, with constitutional limits on public figures.
- Trespass protects possession of land; nuisance protects use and enjoyment; conversion is serious interference with personal property.
- Defenses include consent, self-defense, privilege, and contributory fault as recognized by law.
Worked example
D drives above the speed limit and strikes P in a crosswalk. P suffers a broken leg. D owed pedestrians a duty of reasonable care. Speeding breached that duty. The impact caused the injury, and the harm was foreseeable. P may recover compensatory damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain. If P stepped into traffic without warning, the court may reduce recovery under contributory-fault principles.
Traps
Do not skip causation and jump from breach to damages. Proximate cause asks whether the harm was within the risk created. Res ipsa loquitur requires exclusive control and an event that ordinarily does not happen without negligence. In defamation, distinguish fact from opinion and check privilege.