Introduction

• Torts are wrongful actions

• Through tort law, society seeks to compensate
those who have suffered injuries as a result of
the wrongful conduct of others
• Product liability is a major area of tort law
under which sellers can be held liable for
defective products
• A growing body of law is designed to protect
the health and safety and the credit of
consumers
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The Basis of Tort Law
• Wrongs and Compensation
• One Person or Group Brings Suit against
Another
– Obtain compensation (money damages)
– Other relief for harm suffered
• Purpose of Tort Law Is to Provide Remedies
– Invasion of protected interests or rights
• Elements of a Tort
– Points that plaintiff must prove to succeed

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Intentional Torts
• Requires Intent
• Tortfeasor: The Person Accused
– Intended the consequences of an act
– Knew or should have known that certain
consequences would result from an act
• Fall into Two Categories
– Against persons
– Against property

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Assault
• Act intended to cause an apprehension of
harmful or offensive contact
• Act caused apprehension in the victim that
harmful or offensive contact is imminent

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Battery
• An intent to cause an unwanted contact
• The unwanted harmful contact
• Compensation
• Defenses to assault and battery
– Consent
– Self-defense
– Defense of others
– Defense of property

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– False Imprisonment
• Intent to confine or restrain a person
• Actual confinement in boundaries not of the
plaintiff’s choosing
– Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
• Outrageous conduct by the defendant
• Intent
• Severe emotional distress suffered by the plaintiff
with the emotional distress being caused by the
defendant’s conduct

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Defamation
• Wrongfully harming a person’s good reputation
– Slander: breaching this duty orally
– Libel: breaching this duty in writing
• The publication requirement
• Defenses against defamation
– Truth
– Privileged communications
– Made without actual malice

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Invasion of the right to privacy
• Use of person’s name, picture, or likeness for
commercial purposes without permission
• Intrusion into person’s affairs or seclusion
• Publication of information that places person in
false light
• Public disclosure of private facts about individual
that ordinary person would find objectionable

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Appropriation
• Use by one person of another person’s name,
likeness, or other identifying characteristic
without permission and for the benefit of the user

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Misrepresentation (fraud)
• Intentional deceit for personal gain
• Elements of fraud
– Misrepresentation of facts or conditions with knowledge
that they are false or with reckless disregard for the truth
– Intent to induce another to rely on the misrepresentation
– Justifiable reliance by the deceived party
– Damages suffered as a result of the reliance
– Causal connection between the misrepresentation and
the harm suffered
• Fact versus opinion

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Wrongful interference
• Wrongful interference with a contractual
relationship
– Valid, enforceable contract exists between two
parties
– Third party knows that this contract exists
– Third party intentionally causes either of the two
parties to breach the contract

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Persons
– Wrongful interference
• Wrongful interference with a business
relationship
– Defendant knew or had reason to know that a
third party and the plaintiff are in a business
relationship
– Defendant intentionally interfered in the
relationship
• Defenses to wrongful interference

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Intentional Torts
• Intentional Torts against Property
– Trespass to land
• Trespass criteria, rights, and duties
• Defenses against trespass to land
– Trespass to personal property
– Conversion

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Negligence
• Negligence occurs when someone suffers
injury because of another’s failure to live up
to required duty of care
• Elements
– Defendant owed a duty of care
– Defendant breached that duty
– Plaintiff suffered a legally recognizable
injury
– Defendant’s breach caused the injury
suffered
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Negligence
• The Duty of Care and Its Breach
– Reasonable person standard
– The duty of property owners
• Duty to business invitees
• Open and obvious risks
– The duty of professionals
• Medical malpractice
• Legal malpractice

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Negligence
• The Injury Requirement and Damages
– Legally recognizable injury
– Clearly establish a basis for recovery
– Compensatory damages
• Compensate or reimburse for actual losses
– Punitive damages
• Punish the wrongdoer and deter others from
similar wrongdoing

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Negligence
• Causation
– Wrongful activity must have caused harm
– Court must address two questions
• Is there causation in fact?
• Was the act the proximate cause of the injury?
– Both must be answered in the affirmative for
liability in a tort to arise

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Negligence
• Defenses to Negligence
– Assumption of risk
• Plaintiff voluntarily enters into a risky situation,
knowing the risk
– Superseding cause
• Unforeseeable intervening event may break the
connection between wrongful act and injury to
another
– Contributory and comparative negligence
• Contributory: plaintiff was also negligent
• Comparative: liability for injuries is shared
proportionately by all parties who were guilty of
negligence
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Negligence
• Special Negligence Doctrines and Statutes
– Negligence per se
• Action or failure to act in violation of statutory
requirement
– Special negligence statutes
• Good Samaritan statutes
• Dram shop acts

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Cyber Torts:
Defamation Online
• Liability of Internet Service Providers
– Communications Decency Act
– Internet service providers are not liable for
defamatory statements
• Piercing the Veil of Anonymity
– ISPs can disclose personal information
about their customers only when ordered by
a court
– Rights of plaintiffs are balanced against
defendants’ rights to free speech

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Strict Liability
• Liability Is Imposed for Reasons Other Than
Fault
• Abnormally Dangerous Activities
– Potential harm of a serious nature to
persons and property
– Involves a high degree of risk
– Not commonly performed in the community
or area
• Basis of Liability
– The creation of an extraordinary risk
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Product Liability
• Theories of Product Liability
– Product liability based on negligence
• Manufacturer fails to exercise due care to make
product safe
– Product liability based on misrepresentation
• Manufacturer or seller misrepresents quality,
nature, or appropriate use of a product
– Strict product liability
• Manufacturing defects
• Design defects
• Warning defects

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Product Liability
• Defenses to Product Liability
– No duty to warn against obvious or
commonly
– known risks
– Assumption of risk
– Product misuse
– Comparative negligence

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Summary
• Two notions serve as the basis of all torts:
wrongs and compensation.
• A tort is a civil wrong. Torts fall into two broad
classifications: intentional torts and
negligence.
• Intentional torts occur when the actor
intended to perform an act that resulted in an
injury to a protected right of another party

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Summary
• Negligence is the careless performance of a
legally required duty or the failure to perform
a legally required act.
• General tort principles are extended to cover
cyber torts, or torts that occur in cyberspace,
such as online defamation.
• Under the doctrine of strict liability, a person
or company may be held liable for damages
or injuries caused by a product or activity.

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Summary
• The makers of products can be liable for
injuries and damages caused by defective
products.
• Statutes, agency rules, and common law
judicial decisions that serve to protect the
interests of consumers are classified as
consumer law.