Torts
Duty, Breach, Causation, and Defenses
Negligence requires duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages. Duty is generally owed to foreseeable plaintiffs; special relationships and undertakings may create affirmative duties. Breach is judged by the reasonable person, with exceptions for children, professionals, and emergencies. Negligence per se applies when a statute sets a standard, the plaintiff is in the protected class, and the harm is the type the statute was meant to prevent.
Actual cause uses the but-for test or substantial factor. Proximate cause limits liability to foreseeable harms; intervening causes may supersede, but rescue doctrine and foreseeable negligence do not. Damages include compensatory and, for egregious conduct, punitive. Defenses include contributory negligence, comparative negligence, and assumption of risk.
Intentional torts require intent and causation: battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trespass, and conversion. Defenses include consent, self-defense, defense of property, and necessity. Strict liability applies to wild animals, abnormally dangerous activities, and defective products. Products liability theories include manufacturing defect, design defect, and failure to warn.
Defamation requires a defamatory statement, publication, damage to reputation, and fault. Public figures must prove actual malice. Privileges include absolute and qualified privileges.
Traps and Rule of Thumb
Traps include confusing actual and proximate cause, overlooking the eggshell plaintiff, and applying strict liability to ordinary products. Rule of thumb: duty, breach, cause, harm, then defenses. For example, a driver speeding through a school zone and hitting a child is negligent per se if the statute protects children from that harm.