BLAW 341 Chapter 5

Puffrey

A salesperson's exaggerated claims concerning the quality of property offered for sale. Such claims involve opinions rather than facts and are not legally binding promises or warranties.

privilege

A special favor, right, or advantage given to a person or group.

Defamation

Act of harming or ruining another's reputation

causation in fact

An act or omission without which an event would not have occurred.

Qualified Privilege

An employer's statements in written evaluations of employees are an example of?

conversion

Any act that deprives an owner of personal property or of the use of that property without the owner's permission and without just cause can constitute

a person must have a reasonable expectation of privacy the invasion must be highly offensive.

How can you sue for invasion of privacy>

intentional torts against property

1. trespass to land 2. trespass to personal property 3. conversion 4. disparagement of property

consent

A common defense to intentional torts against persons, for instance, is?

True

T or F Generally, if the victim of a harm or the consequences of a harm done are unforeseeable, there is no proximate cause.

True

T or F If the plaintiff shows that there was contact, and the jury (or judge, if there is no jury) agrees that the contact was offensive, the plaintiff has a right to compensation.

true

T or F Negligent misrepresentation requires only that the person making the statement or omission did not have a reasonable basis for believing its truthfulness.

true

True or False Retailers and other firms that explicitly or implicitly invite persons to come onto their premises have a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect these business invitees.

good Samaritan statues

Under these statutes, someone who is aided voluntarily by another cannot turn around and sue the "Good Samaritan" for negligence.

proximate cause

Legal cause; exists when the connection between an act and an injury is strong enough to justify imposing liability.

personal property

consists of all other items, which are basically movable

A statement that another has a loathsome disease (such as a sexually transmitted diseases) or serious mental defect. A statement that another has committed improprieties while engaging in a profession or trade. A statement that another has committed or has been imprisoned for a serious crime. A statement that a person is unchaste or has engaged in serious sexual misconduct. (This category of slander per se usually applies only to unmarried persons and sometimes only to women.)

four types of false utterances are considered to be slander per se:

statue of limitations

that establishes the time limit (often two years from the date of discovering the harm) within which a particular type of lawsuit can be filed. After that time period, the plaintiff can no longer file a claim.

False Imprisonment

the intentional confinement or restraint of another person's activities without justification

duty of care

the obligation people owe each other not to cause any unreasonable harm or risk of harm

General Damages

A monetary award to compensate a victim for losses, such as pain and suffering, that do not involve specific measurable expenses.

Enters onto, above, or below the surface of land that is owned by another. Causes anything to enter onto land owned by another. Remains on land owned by another or permits anything to remain on it.

A trespass to land occurs anytime a person, without permission, does any of the following:

general damages

Once a defendant's liability for libel is established, a plaintiff is normally entitled to?

Defences

Pleadings recognised by law that allow a defendant to justify his or her conduct.

Dram Shop Acts

Under which a bar owner or bartender may be held liable for injuries caused by a person who became intoxicated while drinking at the bar. The owner or bartender may also be held responsible for continuing to serve a person who was already intoxicated.

business torts

wrongful interference with another's business rights and relationships

true

T or F Court held that when an award of punitive damages is grossly excessive, it furthers no legitimate purpose and violates due process requirements

True

T or F Often at issue in defamation lawsuits (including online defamation) is whether the defendant made a statement of fact or a statement of opinion. Statements of opinion normally are not actionable because they are protected under the First Amendment. In other words, making a negative statement about another person is not defamation unless the statement is false and represents something as a fact. Vickie's statement "Lane cheats on his taxes," if false, can lead to liability for defamation because it is a statement of fact. The statement "Lane is a jerk" cannot constitute defamation because it is clearly an opinion.

True

T or F Persons who possess superior knowledge, skill, or training are held to a higher standard of care than others

superseding cause

An intervening force or event that breaks the connection between a wrongful act and an injury to another; in negligence law, a defense to liability.

Assumption of Risk

A defense against negligence that can be used when the plaintiff was aware of a danger and voluntarily assumed the risk of injury from that danger. 1.Knowledge of the risk. Voluntary assumption of the risk.

Attractive Nuisance Doctrine

A doctrine treating a child as a licensee, or guest, rather than a trespasser on land containing an artificial and harmful condition that is certain to attract children.

IIED

A father attacks a man who has had consensual sexual relations with the father's nineteen-year-old daughter. The father handcuffs the man to a steel pole and threatens to kill him unless he leaves town immediately. The father's conduct may be sufficiently extreme and outrageous to be actionable as an?

invasion into personal affairs

A female sports reporter for ESPN is digitally videoed while naked through the peephole in the door of her hotel room. If she sues, she will likely win a lawsuit against the man who took the video and posted it on the Internet. What type of tort is this under invasion of privacy?

Special Damages

A form of compensatory damages that awards a sum of money for specific, identifiable expenses associated with the injured person's loss, such as medical expenses or lost wages.

Contributory Negligence

A legal defense that may be raised when the defendant feels that the conduct of the plaintiff somehow contributed to any injuries or damages that were sustained by the plaintiff.

Compensatory Damages

A monetary award equivalent to the actual value of injuries or damage sustained by the aggrieved party.

false light

Police received a report from a customer of West Gate Bank that his debit card had been stolen and used to withdraw funds from his account at the bank's ATM. The ATM video depicted a female walking up to an ATM and using a debit card to withdraw cash. To identify the person, the police posted still images from the video on the Crime Stoppers website and Facebook page. The caption said, "This young lady doesn't look like your typical crook, but she is! She used someone's stolen credit card.... If you know who she is, leave us a tip here." Police received tips that the woman in the video was Shayla Funk. Funk, as it turned out, was not a criminal and was simply withdrawing funds with her own card from her own bank account. Nevertheless, as a result of the posting, she lost her job as an occupational therapist. Funk sued the city and Crime Stoppers organization for defamation and for violating her privacy by?

true

T or F An owner can normally use reasonable force to remove a trespasser from the premises—or detain the trespasser for a reasonable time—without liability for damages, however.

true

T or F Defamatory statements made via the Internet are actionable as well. Note also that anyone who republishes or repeats defamatory statements is liable even if that person reveals the source of the statements.

True

T or F Someone who buys stolen goods, for instance, can be sued for conversion even if he or she did not know that the goods were stolen

True

T or F Truth is normally an absolute defense against a defamation charge. In other words, if the defendant in a defamation suit can prove that his or her allegedly defamatory statements were true, normally no tort has been committed.

True

T or F a person will not be liable for defamatory statements because he or she has a qualified, or conditional, privilege. An employer's statements in written evaluations of employees are an example of a qualified privileg

True

T or F he tort may involve reliance on a statement of opinion if the individual making the statement has a superior knowledge of the subject matter. For instance, when a lawyer makes a statement of opinion about the law in a state in which the lawyer is licensed to practice, a court would treat it as a statement of fact.

True

T or F that anyone who republishes or repeats defamatory statements is liable even if that person reveals the source of the statements.

Comparative Negligence

Under this standard, both the plaintiff's and the defendant's negligence are computed, and the liability for damages is distributed accordingly. For instance, if a plaintiff was 80 percent at fault and the defendant 20 percent at fault, the plaintiff may recover 20 percent of his or her damages.

trespass to personal property

Wrongfully taking or harming the personal property of another or otherwise interfering with the lawful owner's possession of personal property.

reasonable duty of care

a property owner is legally obligated to warn people of danger on their property

The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress

can be defined as extreme and outrageous conduct resulting in severe emotional distress to another

actionable

capable of serving as the ground for a lawsuit), the conduct must be so extreme and outrageous that it exceeds the bounds of decency accepted by society.

did not show there was a third party involved

Eddy Ramirez, a meat cutter at Costco Wholesale Corporation, was involved in a workplace incident with a co-worker, and Costco gave him a notice of suspension. After an investigation in which co-workers were interviewed, Costco fired Ramirez. Ramirez sued, claiming that the suspension notice was defamatory. The court ruled in Costco's favor. Ramirez could not establish defamation, because he had not shown that the suspension notice was published to any third parties. Costco did nothing beyond what was necessary to investigate the events that led to Ramirez's termination.

actual malice

Either knowledge of a defamatory statement's falsity or a reckless disregard for the truth.

The nature of the act (whether it is outrageous or commonplace). The manner in which the act was performed (cautiously versus heedlessly). The nature of the injury (whether it is serious or slight).

In determining whether the duty of care has been breached, courts consider several factors:

trepass to personal property

Kelly takes Ryan's business law book as a practical joke and hides it so that Ryan is unable to find it for several days before the final examination is an example of what?

Tort Law

Law that deals with harm to a person or a person's property.is designed to compensate those who have suffered a loss or injury due to another person's wrongful act.

true

Liz enters a Crown Market, slips on a wet floor, and sustains injuries as a result. If there was no sign warning that the floor was wet when Liz slipped, the owner of Crown Market would be liable for damages. A court would hold that the business owner was negligent because the owner failed to exercise a reasonable degree of care in protecting the store's customers against foreseeable risks about which the owner knew or should have known. That a patron might slip on the wet floor and be injured was a foreseeable risk, and the owner should have taken care to avoid this risk or to warn the customer of it (by posting a sign or setting out orange cones, for instance).

Punitive Damages

Monetary damages that may be awarded to a plaintiff to punish the defendant and deter similar conduct in the future.

Malpractice

Negligence by a professional person

intentional tort

tort in which the defendant means to commit the injurious act

true

true or false . If a defendant's action constitutes causation in fact but a court decides that the action was not the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury, the causation requirement has not been met—and the defendant normally will not be liable to the plaintiff.

damage

used to refer to harm or injury to persons or property.

defamatory speech

what type of speech is not protected by the first amendment?

Transferred Intent

when a defendant intends to harm one individual, but unintentionally harms a second person ex:Alex swings a bat intending to hit Blake but misses and hits Carson instead. Carson can sue Alex for the tort of battery (discussed shortly) because Alex's intent to harm Blake can be transferred to Carson.

Battery

which is defined as an unexcused and harmful or offensive physical contact intentionally performed. ex:Ivan threatens Jean with a gun and then shoots her. The pointing of the gun at Jean is an assault. The firing of the gun (if the bullet hits Jean) is a battery.

unintentional tort

negligence and malpractice

Disparagement of Property

occurs when economically injurious falsehoods are made about another's product or property, rather than about another's reputation (as in the tort of defamation).

Tort of Negligence

occurs when someone suffers injury because of another's failure to fulfill a required duty of care.

damages

once a defendants liability for libel is establish, a plaintiff is entitled to what?

real property

is land and things "permanently" attached to the land.

damages

is used to refer to monetary compensation for such harm or injury.

Libel

Defamation in writing or another permanent form (such as a digital recording).

Public disclosure of private facts

This type of invasion of privacy occurs when a person publicly discloses private facts about an individual that an ordinary person would find objectionable or embarrassing. A newspaper account about a private citizen's sex life or financial affairs could be an actionable invasion of privacy, even if the information revealed is true, because it should not be a matter of public concern.

A valid, enforceable contract must exist between two parties. A third party must know that this contract exists. The third party must intentionally induce a party to breach the contract.

Three elements are necessary for wrongful interference with a contractual relationship to occur:

Slander

spoken defamation

true

that licenses to enter are revocable by the property owner. If a property owner asks a meter reader to leave and the meter reader refuses to do so, the meter reader at that point becomes a trespasser.

slander of title

this is an intentional tort that occurs when someone knowingly publishes an untrue statement about property with the intent of discouraging a third party from dealing with the property's owner ex:For instance, a car dealer would have difficulty attracting customers if competitors publish a notice that the dealer's stock consists of stolen automobiles.

assumption of risk superseding case contributory and comparative negligence

three basic affirmative defenses in negligence cases

Fraudulent Misrepresentation

Any misrepresentation, either by misstatement or by omission of a material fact, knowingly made with the intention of deceiving another and on which a reasonable person would and does rely to his or her detriment.

conversion

Chen borrows Mark's iPad Pro to use while traveling home from school for the holidays. When Chen returns to school, Mark asks for his iPad Pro back. Chen tells Mark that she gave it to her little brother for Christmas. In this situation, Mark can sue Chen for?

Appropriation

In tort law, the use by one person of another person's name, likeness, or other identifying characteristic without permission and for the benefit of the user.

Intrusion into an individual's affairs or seclusion.

Invading someone's home or illegally searching someone's briefcase is an invasion of privacy. The tort has been held to extend to eavesdropping by wiretap, the unauthorized scanning of a bank account, compulsory blood testing, and window peeping. ex:A female sports reporter for ESPN is digitally videoed while naked through the peephole in the door of her hotel room. If she sues, she will likely win a lawsuit against the man who took the video and posted it on the Internet.

qualified privilege

Jorge has worked at Google for five years and is being considered for a management position. His supervisor, Lydia, writes an e-mail about Jorge's performance to those evaluating him for the management position. The message contains certain negative statements, which Lydia honestly believes are true. If Lydia limits the disclosure of the contents of the message to company representatives, her statements will likely be protected by a?

slander of quality/trade libel

The publication of false information about another's product, alleging that it is not what its seller claims.

reasonable person standard

The standard of behavior expected of a hypothetical "reasonable person." The standard against which negligence is measured and that must be observed to avoid liability for negligence.

Duty. The defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. Breach. The defendant breached that duty. Causation. The defendant's breach caused the plaintiff's injury. Damages. The plaintiff suffered a legally recognizable injury.

To succeed in a negligence action, the plaintiff must prove each of the following:

The defendant made a false statement of fact. The statement was understood as being about the plaintiff and tended to harm the plaintiff's reputation. The statement was published to at least one person other than the plaintiff. In addition, if the plaintiff is a public figure, she or he must prove actual malice.

To establish defamation, a plaintiff normally must prove the following:

true

True or False Persons who possess superior knowledge, skill, or training are held to a higher standard of care than others. Professionals—such as physicians, dentists, architects, engineers, accountants, and lawyers—are required to have a standard minimum level of special knowledge and ability

true

True or False When the outrageous conduct consists of speech about a public figure, the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech limits emotional distress claims. ex:Hustler magazine once printed a fake advertisement that showed a picture of the Reverend Jerry Falwell and described him as having lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse while he was drunk. Falwell sued the magazine for intentional infliction of emotional distress and won, but the United States Supreme Court overturned the decision. The Court held that creators of parodies of public figures are protected under the First Amendment from claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress. (The Court applied the same standards that apply to public figures in defamation lawsuits, discussed next.

true

True or false In contrast to cases involving libel, in a case alleging slander, the plaintiff must prove special damages (defined earlier) to establish the defendant's liability. In other words, the plaintiff must show that the slanderous statement caused the plaintiff to suffer actual economic or monetary losses.

Appropriation of identity

Under the common law, using a person's name, picture, or other likeness for commercial purposes without permission is a tortious invasion of privacy. An individual's right to privacy normally includes the right to the exclusive use of her or his identity.

Strict Liability Tort

a civil wrong that involves taking action that is so inherently dangerous under the circumstances of its performance that no amount of due care can make it safe Strict liability for damages proximately caused by an abnormally dangerous or exceptional activity is one application of this doctrine.

assault

is any intentional and unexcused threat of immediate harmful or offensive contact—words or acts that create in another person a reasonable apprehension of harmful contact

special damages

in a case involving slander, the plaintiff mush prove?

product liability

involves holding a firm and its officers responsible when a product causes injury, death, or damage

Tortfeasor

one who commits a tort

false light

publication of information that places a person in a ----- is also an invasion of privacy. For instance, writing a story about a person that attributes ideas and opinions not held by that person is an invasion of privacy. (Publishing such a story could involve the tort of defamation as well.)