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• A tort is a civil, legal injury (wrong) to a person or property punishable by compensating, or paying damages to, the injured party – Plaintiff (the injured party) sues the– Defendant (the Tortfeasor) for damages.
Intentional Torts Against PersonsIntentional Torts Against PersonsDefamation DefensesDefamation Defenses
• Truth: Statement is the truth!
• Privilege: Statement is privileged
• Absolute privileged: judicial and legislative proceedings (attorneys, legislators).
• Qualified Privilege: made in good faith and, in the case of statements made only to those who have a legitimate interest in the statement, are privileged.
• Absence of Malice:.• Public Figures: plaintiff must show statement made
with “actual malice.”• that is, with either knowledge of falsity or reckless
• Invasion of Privacy: Common law recognizes four acts that qualify as improperly infringing on another’s privacy:– Appropriation - Appropriating a person’s name,
picture, or other likeness for commercial purposes without their permission
– Invasion of Privacy - intruding into an individual’s affairs or seclusion in an area in which the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g. restroom)
– False Light - publishing information that places a person in false light
– Public Disclosure of private facts.
Intentional Torts Against PersonsIntentional Torts Against PersonsInvasion of PrivacyInvasion of Privacy
• Misrepresentation (Fraud) = Intentional deceit.– knowingly made with reckless disregard for the truth– with the intention of deceiving another by influencing
them to rely on the misrepresentation– an innocent person, justifiably, relies on the
misrepresentation– Causing injury to the plaintiff and Damages.– Not Fraud if
• puffery, or “seller’s talk,” involve opinions, not facts
• however, opinion statements may give rise to a claim of fraud if the party expressing the opinion has a superior knowledge of the subject matter.
Intentional Torts Against PersonsIntentional Torts Against PersonsMisrepresentationMisrepresentation
• Trespass to Land = Entry onto, above, or below the surface of land without the owner’s permission or legal authorization.– Trespass to Land.
• Trespass to Personal Property. Taking or harming another’s personal property, in such a way as to interfere with the other person’s right to exclusive possession of his personal property, without the owner’s permission or legal authorization.– Conversion = Giving someone’s property to another without
permission– Disparagement of Property = The publication, written
(trade libel) or oral (slander of quality, slander of title), of false information about the quality of another’s product or services, proximately causing financial loss to the disparaged party.
• Defense to Trespass: Trespass may be justified or excused if the trespasser can prove
• Necessity: trying to rescue another or save another’s life or property
• License: invited, and entered before the owner revoked the license.
Intentional Torts Against PropertyIntentional Torts Against PropertyTrespassingTrespassing
View the Video “Jaws” - TortsIn groups of 3-4, answer the following questions?
• In the video, the mayor (Murray Hamilton) and a few other men try to persuade Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) not to close the town’s beaches. If Brody keeps the beaches open and a swimmer is injured or killed because he failed to warn swimmers about the potential shark danger, has Brody committed a tort? If so, what kind of tort (intentional tort against persons, intentional tort against property, negligence)? Explain your answer.
• Can Chief Brody be held liable for any injuries or deaths to swimmers under the doctrine of strict liability? Why or why not?
• If Chief Brody goes against the mayor’s instructions and warns swimmers to stay off the beach, and the town suffers economic damages as a result, has he committed the tort of disparagement of property? Why or why not?
• Negligence is an unintentional tort.– Occurs when someone suffers injury because of the
defendant’s failure to comply with a legal duty of care (reasonable amount of care when dealing with others).
– Defendant creates a foreseeable risk of injury.
• Test or analysis of Negligence– Did the Defendant owe the Plaintiff a legal duty of care?– Did the Defendant breach that duty?– Did the Plaintiff suffer a legal injury?– Did the Defendant’s breach of duty cause the Plaintiff’s
• Injury Requirement and Damages– Plaintiff must suffer a legally recognizable injury.– Not all injuries can be compensated.– Compensatory damages = reimbursement for injury– Punitive damages = $ to deter defendant from
similar conduct in the future
• Causation– Injury would not have occurred if the defendant had
not been negligent– Proximate Cause (foreseeable strong connection)
• Special Negligence Doctrines.– “Danger Invites Rescue” doctrine
• In cases where an individual takes foreseeable action to avoid harm or to rescue another from harm, any injury her action causes will be attributable to the original wrongdoer whose fault or negligence caused her to take the defensive action.
– Dram Shop Acts• Many jurisdictions hold that a business, and in some
jurisdictions an individual, that served alcoholic beverages to a person after he or she arrived intoxicated or became intoxicated is liable for any injuries caused by the intoxicated patron or guest.
Cyber TortsCyber Torts• Online Defamation: An online message attacking another person or
entity in harsh, often personal, and possibly defamatory, terms. Online defamation is difficult to combat because:– the Communications Decency Act of 1996 absolves Internet
service providers (“ISPs”) from liability for disseminating defamatory material
– the Internet affords a high degree of anonymity to the person who posted the defamatory message.
• Spam: Bulk, unsolicited e-mail or newsgroup postings – usually an advertisement for the “spammer’s” product or service sent to all users on an e-mailing list or newsgroup.– Some states regulate or prohibit the use of spam, giving recipients of
unwanted spam, and even ISPs, legal bases for blocking spam and for recovering against spammers.
– In 2003, Congress enacted the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, which prohibits certain types of spamming activities, such as using a false return e-address and transmitting false, misleading, or deceptive information via e-mail.