Torts
Torts
Torts questions test intentional torts, negligence, strict liability, products liability, defamation, and damages. Identify the tort, the duty, and the causation chain before discussing damages.
Intentional torts and privileges
- Battery requires harmful or offensive contact with intent; assault requires apprehension of imminent contact; false imprisonment requires confinement.
- Privileges include consent, self-defense, defense of others, and necessity.
Negligence
- Duty is owed to foreseeable plaintiffs (Cardozo) or anyone in the zone of danger (Andrews). Standards vary for children, professionals, and landowners: trespassers, licensees, and invitees.
- Breach may be shown by custom, statute, or res ipsa loquitur (exclusive control, ordinary care, no plaintiff contribution).
- Causation requires actual cause plus proximate cause; the eggshell plaintiff rule applies.
- Comparative negligence reduces recovery; joint and several liability may apply.
Strict liability and products
- Abnormally dangerous activities and wild animals support strict liability.
- Products liability covers manufacturing defects, design defects, and warning defects; the economic loss rule bars tort recovery for pure economic loss.
Defamation and privacy
- Defamation requires a defamatory statement, publication, and damages unless defamation per se. Public figures must prove actual malice.
- Privacy torts include intrusion, public disclosure, false light, and appropriation.
Worked example
A customer slips on a banana peel in a grocery store. As an invitee, she must show the store had actual or constructive notice. A surveillance video showing the peel on the floor for 40 minutes establishes constructive notice, supporting breach.
Traps
- Confusing duty with breach.
- Treating proximate cause as identical to actual cause.
- Ignoring the firefighter's rule and assumption of risk.