INTENTIONAL TORTS

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INTENTIONAL TORTS

• Text Chapter 6

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Learning Objectives

• Definition of Tort
• Interference with Personal Rights
• Interference with Property Rights

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Definition of a Tort

• A tort is a civil wrong that is not a breach of a
  contract
• Four types of wrongfulness are involved
• Intent
• Recklessness
• Negligence
• Strict liability

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The Basics

• The standard of proof that the plaintiff must
  satisfy in a tort case is the preponderance of
  the evidence standard
• A plaintiff who wins a tort case usually recovers
  compensatory damages for the harm suffered as a
  result of defendants wrongful act
• Particularly bad behavior may result in an award
  of punitive damages

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Mathias v. Accor Economy Lodging

• Facts Procedural History
• Plaintiffs bitten by bedbugs during hotel stay
• Plaintiffs alleged defendant knowingly
  disregarded evidence of bedbug infestation
• Evidence defendant knew of, ignored problem
• Jury awarded plaintiffs compensatory and punitive
  damages
• Issue
• Did defendants conduct rise to the level of
  willful misconduct?

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Mathias v. Accor Economy Lodging

• Law Applied to Facts
• Defendants behavior was outrageous but the
  compensable harm done was slight and difficult to
  quantify (primarily emotional)
• Award of punitive damages in this case serves
  purpose of limiting defendants ability to profit
  from its fraud by escaping detection and
  (private) prosecution
• Holding
• District courts judgment in favor of plaintiffs
  affirmed

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Interference with Personal Rights

• Battery
• Assault
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
• False Imprisonment
• Defamation
• Invasion of Privacy
• Misuse of Legal Proceedings
• Deceit (Fraud)

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Battery

• Intentional and harmful or offensive touching of
  another without the persons consent
• No liability if person consented
• Contact is harmful if it produces bodily injury,
  but battery includes nonharmful contact that is
  offensive (reasonable person standard)
• Example Wishnatsky v. Huey case

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Assault

• Assault occurs when there is an intentional
  attempt or threat to cause a harmful or offensive
  contact with another person, if the attempt
  causes a reasonable apprehension of imminent
  battery in the other persons mind
• Irrelevant whether threatened contact really
  occurs, as long as plaintiff had apprehension of
  immediate or imminent contact
• Plaintiff must actually see or feel the potential
  contact

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Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

• Most courts allow recovery for emotional distress
  even if no other tort is proven
• All courts require the wrongdoers conduct to be
  outrageous before liability is imposed
• Most courts apply reasonable person test
• Example Lourcey v. Estate of Scarlett
• Defendants conduct must be intentional or
  reckless and so outrageous as to offend a
  reasonable person, and plaintiff must have
  suffered serious mental injury

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False Imprisonment

• False imprisonment is intentional confinement of
  another for an appreciable time without his
  consent
• confinement must be complete, though a few
  minutes is enough
• no liability if plaintiff consented to
  confinement
• Example Banks v. Fritsch
• Defendants conduct must be intentional or
  reckless and outrageous, and plaintiff must have
  suffered serious mental injury

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Defamation

• Defamation is an
• (1) unprivileged
• (2) publication of
• (3) false and defamatory
• (4) statements concerning another person
• Libel refers to written defamation and slander
  refers to oral defamation
• Truth is a complete defense in a defamation case

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Defamation

• Another defense to defamation is privilege
• Examples statements made by participants in
  judicial proceedings, by officials in the course
  of their duties, by one spouse to the other in
  private, and fair and accurate media reports
  (fair comment) of defamatory matter that appears
  in proceedings of official government action or
  originates from public meetings

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Defamation Free Speech

• In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the
  U.S. Supreme Court held that when a public
  official brings a defamation case, s/he must
  prove the usual elements of defamation and actual
  malice (a First Amendmentbased fault
  requirement)
• Actual malice means knowledge of falsity or
  reckless disregard for the truth
• (See Hearst Corp. v. Skeen)
• The holding of this case has been extended to
  include a public figure, but does not include
  private figures

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Invasion of Privacy

• Invasion of privacy refers to four distinct
  torts
• Intrusion on Solitude or Seclusion
• Applies only with a reasonable expectation of
  privacy
• Public Disclosure of Private Facts
• False Light Publicity
• Commercial Appropriation of Name or Likeness
• Example Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. Saderup

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Comedy III Productions v. Saderup

• Facts Procedural History
• In California, the right of publicity is
  inheritable
• Comedy III Productions, Inc. owns rights of
  publicity to the deceased celebrities familiar to
  the public as The Three Stooges
• Without Comedy IIIs consent, defendants produced
  and profited from sale of lithographs and
  T-shirts bearing a likeness of The Three Stooges
• Comedy III brought a right of publicity action
  against artist Gary Saderup and his company

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Comedy III Productions v. Saderup

• Issue
• Did defendants violate a right of publicity?
• Legal Reasoning and Holding
• Saderup argues that his portraits of The Three
  Stooges are expressive, transformative works and
  must receive full First Amendment protection
• No significant transformative or creative
  contribution exists in Saderups work
• If Saderup wishes to continue to depict The Three
  Stooges as he has done, he may do so only with
  the consent of the right of publicity holder

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Misuse of Legal Proceedings

• Three intentional torts protect people against
  the harm that can result from wrongfully
  instituted legal proceedings
• Malicious prosecution wrongful institution of
  criminal proceedings
• Wrongful use of civil proceedings wrongfully
  instituted civil suits
• Abuse of process imposes liability on those who
  initiate legal proceedings, whether criminal or
  civil, for a primary purpose other than the one
  for which the proceedings were designed

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Deceit (Fraud)

• Deceit (or fraud) is the formal name for the tort
  claim that is available to victims of knowing or
  intentional misrepresentations
• Often connected to a breach of contract claim
• Requires proof of false statement of material
  fact, knowingly or recklessly made by defendant
  with intent to induce reliance by the plaintiff,
  along with actual, justifiable, and detrimental
  reliance on the plaintiffs past

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Interference with Property Rights

• Trespass to Land
• Private Nuisance
• Conversion

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Trespass to Land

• Any unauthorized or unprivileged intentional
  intrusion upon anothers real property, including
  physically entering the plaintiffs land, causing
  another person or object to do so, remaining on
  the land after ones right to remain has ceased,
  and invading airspace above land or subsurface
  below
• Intent required for liability is simply the
  intent to be on the land, so a person may be
  liable even if the trespass resulted from a
  mistaken belief that entry was legally justified

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Private Nuisance

• Involves some interference with plaintiff s use
  and enjoyment of the land
• Unlike trespass to land, nuisance does not
  require a physical invasion of the property
• May include odors, noise, smoke, light, vibration
• Liability requires the interference to be
  intentional, substantial and unreasonable
• Example Stephens v. Pillen

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Conversion

• Defendants intentional exercise of dominion or
  control over plaintiffs personal property
  without plaintiffs consent through
• Acquisition
• Removal
• Transfer to another
• Withholding possession
• Destruction or alteration
• Use

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