BUS 207 Exam 2 Practice Problems

Defamation liability requires publication of the defamatory statement to an appreciable number of people.

False

Television and radio broadcasts usually are classified as slander rather than as libel because they involve spoken words rather than written ones.

False

A writing is necessary for the creation of an agency relationship.

False It can be implied (created by conduct), exist under the apparent authority doctrine, etc

The "tort reform movement is aimed at eliminating all loopholes through which tort defendants escape liability to deserving plaintiffs

False Its aimed at making it more difficult for plaintiffs to recover against defendants in product liability actions

Ratification by a principal of an agent's unauthorized entering into a contract must be express (in words)

False No it can be implied (by conduct) as well or even expressed via in a writing

Which of the following is not an effect of ratification by the principal?

It binds the agent to an unauthorized contract

Which of the following is an element of the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress

Outrageous conduct

Which of the following people is most likely to have committed to a breach of duty and to be liable for negligence?

A person who causes an auto accident after suffering a blackout while driving a car, and that person had had periodic blackouts before.

Which of the following parties is least likely to be an employee?

A real estate broker who helps sell your house This question is asking you whether you can identify and distinguish the difference between an independent contractor v. an employee

Which of the following is least likely to create liability for the form of invasion of privacy known as/called "intrusion on personal solitude or seclusion"?

Examining public records (documents in a court file) concerning a person, because here there's no reasonable expectation of privacy.

Assault requires harmful or offensive physical contact.

False

Courts would classify a defamatory radio broadcast as slander rather than libel because it involves spoken words

False

For battery to occur, the victim must be aware of harmful or offensive contact at the time it occurs.

False

If a defendant is liable in tort, he cannot be criminally prosecuted for the wrongful behavior that made him liable in tort.

False

In an invasion of privacy lawsuit involving the public disclosure of private facts, the defendant will escape liability if the facts he disclosed were true.

False

One aspect of the agent's duty of loyalty is that an agent is forbidden from ever competing with his principal, even after the agency has ended

False

Under a pure system of comparative negligence, the defendant has no defense whatsoever when the plaintiff's percentage share of negligence causing the injury is less than fifty percent.

False

Because some intentional torts involve behavior which is also criminial, plaintiffs in civil intentional tort lawsuits must prove all the elements of their claim beyond reasonable doubt.

False It is "preponderance of evidence"

Basically negligence is a subjective mental state of inattention, a failure to think, etc

False It's objective... based on the mythical "what would be a reasonable person have done" standard.

The aim of the tort reform movement is to make it easier for deserving tort plaintiffs to recover.

False It's really the exact opposite- aimed at making it more difficult for such plaintiffs to recover in such civil tort cases.

In a case involving an ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activity, the plaintiff must prove recklessness on the defendant's part. Any lower fault standard would be unfair to the defendant in such cases.

False This is a situation where strict liability is applied! So, recklessness has nothing to do with it/is not an element of strict liability.

There is no tort liability for fraud where the defendant did not actively make a false statement, and instead merely failed to disclose something.

False This would be an example of fraud in the form of non-disclosure, which is a type of fraud.

Jill tells a group of people that Tom, an investment advisor, steals from his clients. Tom sues Jill for slander. Tom must prove special damages in order to recover.

False Because this is an example of slander per se.

In order for a principal to be directly liable for an agent's negligence, the agent must have acted w/in the scope of her employment

False No, the scope of employment issue and analysis relates to respondent superior, not direct liability.

Statements made in judicial proceedings are conditionally privileged against defamation liability

False They are absolutely privileged.

An agent acting within the scope of her employment will generally be immune from liability for the torts she commits because her employer will be held liable instead

False No an agent is always/remains liable- legally responsible for his/her own torts. Whether he/she has the money to pay for such damages is a different matter/issue!

Phil Plaintiff is injured following the negligent behavior of Doris Defendant. His potential recoverable losses total $10,000. A jury determines that Doris's share of the negligence causing the injury was 40% and Phil was 60%. In a mixed comparative negligence state, Phil will recover:

Nothing

Which of the following is true about the so-called "tort reform" movement?

One example of the movement's success is the tendency for states via their legislatures to make it more difficult for plaintiffs to recover punitive damages, or to limit their amount

Contributory negligence is not a defense in strict liability cases.

True

Generally speaking, statements made during judicial proceedings are absolutely privileged against defamation liability.

True

In intentional infliction of emotional distress cases, some courts require that the plaintiff's emotional distress manifest itself in the form of physical symptoms.

True

In many cases, a blind person will be held to a different standard of reasonable care than a person who can see.

True

Negligence defendants are not liable for the consequences of an unforeseeable, intervening (or superceding) cause.

True

Normally an agent hired to manage a business has the implied authority to hire employees for that business

True

One aspect of the agent's duty to account is that agents normally must give to the principal such things as gifts, bribes and kickbacks that they receive from third parties with whom they deal

True

One of the factors courts/juries consider when determining how a reasonable person would have behaved in the social utility of the defendants conduct.

True

Proximate causation (which is based on foreseeability) presupposes the existence of actual (or but/for causation); and as a practical matter, you can't have the former without the latter.

True

The burden of proof in a tort case is a preponderance of the evidence.

True

The effect of ratification is to make the principal liable for the agent's unauthorized action, just as if the agent had possessed authority at the time he took the action

True

The general rule is that the plaintiff must have had knowledge (be aware of) his confinement in order to recover for false improvement.

True

The tor of intentional infliction of emotional distress requires "outrageous" behavior of some sort on the defendant's part.

True

There can be liability for the defamatory statement is made to only one person other than the plaintiff

True

Under a "mixed" comparative negligence system, a plaintiff recovers nothing where the plaintiff's own negligence was more than 50% (or 50% or more) responsible for the plaintiff's injury.

True.

To which of the following classes of cases does strict liability not apply?

a. ultrahazadous or abnormally dangerous activites b. employee injuries covered by worker's compensation c. injuries caused by the sale of defective and unreasonably dangerous products d. strict liability applies in all cases D.

Which of the following personal traits or conditions will not change the normal reasonable person standard to which defendants are subject?

voluntary intoxication

For which of the following oral statements must the plaintiff prove special damages in order to recover for defamation?

"Your accountant Joe was caught speeding last week."

P sues D in negligence. At the trial, it is determined that P's negligence was 40% responsible for P's injury, and D's negligence was 60% responsible. P's losses total $10,000. Under a pure comparative negligence system, P will recover:

$6,000

Which of the following is slander rather than libel?

- a defamatory statue - a defamatory TV broadcast - a defamatory magazine article All of the above.

Doris locks Phil in a first floor room. Phil sues Doris for false imprisonment. Which of the following is true?

According to some courts, Doris would escape liability if Phil slept through the entire period that the door was locked and thus was unaware that he was being obtained.

Which of the following is based on what the principal somehow communicates to the third party and the third party's reasonable beliefs about that information?

Apparent authority

The Gigantic State University Hospital often would administer experimental drugs to indigent patients that it was forced to treat. This was without the patients' knowledge or consent. After one of the patients suffered physical injury from the drug administered to him, he discovered what had been done and sued the hospital. The patient can recover for:

Battery Assault requires the plaintiff to feel "fear or apprehension" which you obviously can't feel if you are not aware of the defendant's act. A battery can occur even/if when you are not aware that the contact has been made.

Why does the libel- slander distinction matter?

Because a plaintiff normally must prove special damages in an ordinary slander case.

True statements can result in liability for:

Publicizing private facts about another person

Davis throws a dagger at Smith, intending to kill Smith. However, Davis misses Smith. Specifically, the dagger whizzes by Smith's head, missing her by about an inch. Then, the dagger strikes the hat Potter is wearing on his head. The dagger does not make contact with Potter's body- only his hat. Of course, Davis did not intend to make contact with Potter. Unharmed but finding the whole thing offensive, Potter sues Davis for battery. Which of the following is most true?

Davis is liable to Potter for battery. via and because of the doctrine of transferred intent (where you intend to hit one person, but miss and hit another) Potter can sue Davis for battery. Also, remember that the hat Potter is wearing is considered to be a "part" of Potter and that's enough to constitute a battery!

Today a "tort reformer" is someone who wants to:

Deal with the "insurance crisis" by limiting plaintiffs' ability to recover and/or the amount they can receive

Truth is complete defense for:

Defamation

In determining whether the defendant breached a duty, negligence law holds people with mental deficiencies to the same reasonable person standard as normal people.

False.

D builds a fire on a windy day. The wind is blowing before and during the time when D builds the fire. The wind is an intervening force or intervening cause.

False. Note: an intervening or superceding cause is a new/different force or cause that appears after the defendant's initial negligent act. Here the wind was already blowing in existence at the time of the defendant's negligent act.

In strict liability case, the plaintiff still must prove a breach of duty on the defendant's part.

False. This is NOT an element of strict liability, only negligence.

Parsons, a pedestrian watching a construction project, sees that a metal beam being lifted by a crane is about to drop on some unsuspecting workers. Thus, he rushes to the scene to warn the workers. For his efforts, he is struck by the falling beam. He sues the construction company in negligence. Which of the following is true? Assume that the falling beam was caused by a breach of duty on the company's part.

Parsons will recover against the company.

Dave tells Dora that Phil, a financial advisor, has been stealing money from his clients. Dora then repeats Dave's statement to Tom, telling Tom that the information comes from Dave. All these statements are oral, defamatory, and false. Phil sues Dave and Dora for defamation. Which of the following is true? Don't consider defenses and priviliges

Phil can recover against Dave and Dora without proving special damages This is an example of slander per se. The others are not. Thus he does not have to prove special damages.

Phillips hires Ace to collect a debt from Thomas. He tells Ace: "I'll leave the methods up to you, but make sure you get the money." As it turns out, Ace is a violent person with a history of getting into fights at the slightest provocation. Phillips could have discovered this if he had done even the slightest check on Ace's background, but he just didn't bother. When trying to collect the debt, Ace beats Thomas after Thomas calls him a "sick little slime ball" Thomas sues Phillips. In this case:

Phillips is directly liable to Thomas

The Pittenger Corporation, which has not expertise in the demolition business, hires the Ace Demolition Company to demolish a vacant office building owned by Pittenger. Ace has an outstanding reputation for safety. the deal, of course, is that Ace has full control over how the demolition is to be performed. Unfortunately for all concerned, Ace picks this occasion to try out a new method of demolition involving the use of explosives. However even though Pittenger had informed Ace about the matter, Ace failed to notice that the building was filled with flammable materials. Thus when the explosives were detonated, the building exploded into flame, utterly destroying a nearby building and killing and injuring lots of people. Pittenger is sued in tort for this destruction and death. Which of the following is true?

Pittenger is liable for Ace's negligence

Potter is very worried about incurring liability for misrepresentations made by his sales agents. Thus, he instructs his agents to make no representations about his products that aren't contained in the standard for contracts those agents use for making sales. Also the contracts conspicuously state that the seller makes no representations not contained on their face. Then Arthur, one of Potter's most trusted sales agents who has been employed by him for years, makes a forbidden representation to Treat in order to complete a sale (Treat had also bought product from Arthur several months earlier at Potter's store)

Potter cannot cancel the contract

Which of the following involves putting the plaintiff in false light, but is not defamatory?

Signing a loyal liberal Democrat's name to a "George Bush for President" ad

Which of the following is least likely to create liability for defamation?

Statements in a private letter written by the defendant to the plaintiff and shown to no one else.

Which of the following is absolutely privileged in a defamation case?

Statements made in legislative proceedings.

Which of the following is conditionally privileged?

Statements made to protect the interests of others.

Ace, an amateur scientist, negligently mixed two chemicals he should not have mixed. As a result, a massive explosion occurred on his property. The explosion knocked down power lines, interfered with the normal flow of electrical current and caused a freak surge of electricity at the home of Betty, who live one mile from Ace's property. The surge of electricity started a substantial fire at Betty's home. The smoke from the fire at her home damaged the wallpaper in the home of Betty's next-door neighbor Clyde. Clyde brings a negligence suit against Ace. Which of the following is the strongest argument for Ace to make in attempt to avoid being held liable?

That Clyde's damage/injury was too remote a consequence to be regarded as proximately caused by Ace's negligence.

Fred Sweet runs one of those Arthur Murray-style dancing classes for middle-aged and elderly people. Some of Fred's customers lack physical coordination and injuries from kicks, falls, etc. are more common than you'd think. Fred naturally fears that injured customers will sue him in negligence. Thus he makes each customer sign a written contract containing a clause called (exculpatory clause) relieving Fred of all liability for injuries suffered during his dancing classes. However, fearful that he will lose business if potential customers become aware of his strategy, Fred states the clause in fine print and doesn't point it out to them. An injured customer sues Fred in negligence. Fred wants to defend on the basis of the clause in the contract. Which of the following is the biggest weakness in Fred's position?

That Fred used a fine-print exculpatory clause, which means that the customer lacked the knowledge of the clause's existence and therefore should not be bound by it.

Which of the following requires widespread publicity?

The form of invasion of privacy involving the public disclosure of the private facts.

Under a "mixed" system of comparative negligence:

The plaintiff will recover nothing where his actual losses total $10,000 and the defendant is 40% at fault

Which of the following is true about intentional infliction of emotional distress?

The plaintiff's emotional distress must be severe.

Generally speaking, which of the following is least likely to subject to strict liability?

The practice of medicine because this is providing a normal and everyday service, not a product!

Due to Dave Defendant's negligent driving, his car collides with a car driven by Myra Mason. As a result of the collision, Myra's car collides with a telephone pole, causing it to fall. The falling pole then takes out some electrical power lines. The resulting power outage causes the heater in Frank Fish's aquarium to go out, killing ten of his valuable tropical fish. Frank sues Dave in negligence. In this case the best reason why Frank will not recover is that:

There is no proximate causation between the breach of duty and the injury

Although there is no sharp line between employee status and independent contractor status, an agent is generally classified as an employee if the principal has the right to control the physical details of the agent's work

True

While driving his new four-wheel drive vehicle at high speed through a muddy field at the county fair, Joe runs into Susan. Joe wasn't trying to hit anyone and wasn't substantially certain that this would happen either. Rather, he was just having a good time. Of course, Joe knew and had to know that this behavior carried with it a high risk of harm to someone, Joe's behavior is best described as reckless.

True

To say that a breach of duty is an actual cause of the plaintiff's injury is to say that if the breach had not happened, the injury would not have occurred either.

True This is just a different way of stating/describing the "but-for" test that goes with actual causation.

A principal says to an agent "You don't have the authority to do x." Despite this statement, the agent may still have apparent authority to do x"

True This is true because apparent authority has nothing to do with what the principal says to the agent; it deals with what the principal says/does not say to lead a 3rd person to form reasonable belief that an agency relationship has been created and that an agent has the authority to do something on behalf of the principal!

Sounds that reverberate across the plaintiff's land can constitute a trespass.

True Watch out with loud parties.

Apparent authority is based on what the principal communicates to a third party

True understand the difference between actual authority and apparent authority!

Which of the following is least likely to involve liability for violating the so called "right of publicity"? In each case, assume the plaintiff's name, likeness, work, etc. was appropriated without the plaintiff's permission.

Using the work of an unknown artist to illustrate the T-shirts one makes and sells. Note it does not involve a famous person

In which of the following situations is an employee's tort most likely to be outside the scope of his employment?

Where the employee committed the tort solely to advance his own interests, and not at all to advance his employer's interests

Assault and battery both require:

a. physical contact between the defendant's body and the plaintiff's body. b. awareness of the attempted physical contact at the time it occurs. c. reasonable apprehension of harmful or offensive physical contact d. none of the above d.

Pete Principal tells Alice Agent, his sales agent, that under no circumstances does she have authority to make any warranties covering goods she sells for Pete. No third party ever learns about Pete's limitation on Alice's authority. Which of the following is true in this case?

a.) Pete's statement makes it impossible for Alice to have actual authority to make warranties covering goods she sells on Pete's behalf. b) Pete's statement makes it impossible for Alice to have implied authority to make warranties covering goods she sells on Pete's behalf. c) a and b are both true c

If an agency agreement touches on compensation, but does not state the amount of compensation to be paid by the principal to the agent, the agent is:

entitled to receive the market price or customary price for his services, or the reasonable value thereof, whichever is appropriate.

In order for an agent to legally bind a principal on a contract (not for a tort the agent committed) the agent must:

have actual or apparent authority

Implied authority:

is based on what the principal communicates to the agent

While Woody was an employee at Sam's Grocery Store, Woody learned, from Sam himself, how to recognize truly fresh produce when farmers brought their produce to the store. After he ceased being Sam's employee, Woody opened his own grocery store and made good use of what he had learned about recognizing fresh produce. Woody's store became known for its fine produce. Many of Sam's customers began purchasing produce and other grocery items and Woody's store rather than Sam's. Sam sued Woody for the damages allegedly resulting from the loss of customers. Sam should:

lose the suit because in competing with Sam, Woody was using only general knowledge (not specific, confidential and trade type secret information) acquired while he was Sam's employee

An agent hired to manage a business such as restaurant normally has implied authority to:

make repairs to the restuarant

Paul E. Ester has filed for false imprisonment suit against Doubleknit Duds, Inc. a clothing store. His suit arises out of an incident in which Doubleknit personannel detained him in order to determine whether or not he had shoplifted. The state whose law controls Ester's case has enacted a typical shopkeepers' privilege statute of the sort described in the text and in your UR textbook. On these facts, Doubleknit:

may lose the case, depending upon the length and manner of the detention, even if Doubleknit personnel had a resonable basis for believing that Ester had shoplifted.

Marlene is a loan officer employed by Shark Loan Company. Her employer has giver her authority to receive loan applications and to approve the makings of loans. In view of these facts, Marlene:

must take reasonable care to investigate the credit standing of prospective borrowers before approving loans

Potter dies in is sleep from smoke inhalation caused by a hotel fire. Although the fire was not the hotel's fault, Potter's estate sues the hotel in negligence for maintaining inadequate fire exits. Which of the following is most true? You can assume that the hotel's fire exits were in such terrible shape that they amounted to a breach of duty under the reasonable person standard. Due to lenient local laws, however they did not violate any statute or regulation.

the hotel is not liable because its breach of duty was not actual (or but-for) cause of Potter's death

Dick Driver carelessly smashes his car into the rear end of another while driving on a busy street. Although Dick had no way of knowing this, the other car's trunk was filled with dynamite. The collision causes the dynamite to explode. The explosion miraculously misses Dick, but it causes the shattering of a window on the third floor of a nearby office building. The falling glass cuts Pete Pedestrian who was walking on the street below. Dick will not be liable to Pete in negligence because:

there is no proximate causation between Dick's breach and Pete's injury

Which of the following requires that the agent be an employee

tort liability under respondeat superior