BSAD B18 Business Law

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BSAD B18Business Law
Bakersfield College
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Torts

• Purpose of Tort Law is to provide remedies for
  the invasion of various protected interests.
• Personal Physical Safety

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Torts Remedies for Damage or Injury

• Compensatory Damages
• Punitive Damages

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Medical
Compensatory Damages
Lost Wages

• Reimburse actual loss
• To make Plaintiff whole

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Punitive Damages
Deter others

• Punish Wrongdoer when act conduct was
  particularly egregious or reprehensible.
• Deter others from similar wrongdoing.

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Intentional Torts

• Requires Intent.
• Tortfeasor (Person who committed the act)
  intended to commit the act, and consequences
• Which interfered with business or personal
  interest. (i.e. suffered a loss.)

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Assault

• An intentional act that creates in another
  person, a reasonable apprehension of immediate
  harmful or offensive contact.
• (A threatened Battery)
• Apprehension is not fear!

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Battery

• Unexcused harmful or offensive contact.
• Completion of the act (contact) that caused the
  apprehension.
• Contact can involve any part of the body, or
  anything attached to it.

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False Imprisonment

• Intentional confinement or restraint of another
  persons activities without justification.
• Interference of movement.
• Can be accomplished through use of physical
  barriers, physical restraint, threats or physical
  force.
• Moral pressure does not constitute restraint.

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Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

• An Intentional act that amounts to extreme and
  outrages conduct that results in severe emotional
  distress to another.
• The act exceeds the bounds of decency accepted by
  society.
• Truly outrageous behavior.
• Indignity or annoyance not enough.

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Defamation

• An attack on reputation.
• Wrongfully hurting a persons good reputation.
• The law imposes a general duty to refrain from
  making false, defamatory statements of fact about
  others.
• Can be by speech or writing

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Defamation

• Only false statements that represent something as
  a fact constitute defamation.
• Expressions of a personal opinion are protected
  by First Amendment.

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Defamation

• Publication Requirement
• The basis of the tort is the publication of a
  statement that holds a person in contempt,
  ridicule or hatred.
• Communication to another (either intentionally or
  accidentally).
• A person that repeats or republishes a defamatory
  statement can be liable.

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Libel

• Making a false defamatory statement in writing or
  electronic recording.
• Law presumes general damages nonspecific harms
  such as disgrace or dishonor in the eyes of the
  community, humiliation, injured reputation,
  emotional distress.

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Slander

• Oral communication
• Plaintiff must prove special damages caused
  him/her to suffer actual economic or monetary
  losses.
• Oral statements have a temporary quality.
• Exception Slander Per Se

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Invasion of Privacy

• Persons have a right to solitude and freedom from
  prying public eyes.
• Four acts qualify as Invasion of Privacy

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Invasion of Privacy

• Appropriation of Identity
• Using a persons name, picture, or other likeness
  for commercial purposes without permission.

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Invasion of Privacy

• Intrusion into an individuals affairs or
  seclusion
• Invading someones home, searching their
  computer.
• Eavesdropping
• Scanning of bank records
• Searching Medical Records

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Invasion of Privacy

• False Light
• Publication of information ideas or actions of
  someone that did not occur.
• Taken out of context

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Invasion of Privacy

• Public Disclosure of Private Facts
• A person publicly discloses private facts about
  someone that an ordinary person would find
  objectionable or embarrassing.
• When it is not a public concern.

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Appropriation

• The use of anothers name, likeness, or other
  identifying characteristic, without permission
  and for the benefit of the user.
• People have the right to exclusive use of their
  identity.
• Does not require the use of the name or actual
  likeness.

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Fraudulent Misrepresentation

• A misrepresentation made to another to believe in
  a condition that is different from the condition
  that actually exists.
• False or incorrect statement.
• Intentional deceit for personal gain. (Not
  accidentally made.)
• Reckless disregard for the truth.

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Abusive or Frivolous Litigation

• Malicious prosecution
• Law suit brought out of malice and without
  probable cause (legitimate legal reason) and
  looses the law suit (or is dismissed by the
  court).
• Abuse of Process
• Using a legal process against another in an
  improper manner or to accomplish a purpose for
  which the process was not designed.

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Wrongful Interference with a Contractual
Relationship

• 1) Valid, Enforceable Contract must exist between
  two parties
• 2) A Third party knows of the contract
• 3) Third party intentionally induces a party to
  the contract to breach the contract.

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Wrongful Interference with a Business Relationship

• Businessperson unreasonably interfering with
  anothers business in their attempt to gain a
  greater share of the market.
• Attempting to attract customers is legitimate.
• Whereas targeting specific customers of a
  competitor can be predatory.

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Trespass to Land

• Occurs anytime a person enters onto , above or
  below the surface of land of another without
  permission.
• Actual harm to land is not required.

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Trespass to Personal Property

• When someone without consent, takes or harms
  personal property, or otherwise interferes with
  the lawful owners possession and enjoyment of
  the personal property.

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Conversion

• Theft of property.
• When a person possesses or uses the personal
  property of another as if the property belonged
  to him or her.
• Duration and extensiveness of use.
• Failure to return when required to do so.

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Disparagement of Property

• Economically injurious falsehoods are made about
  anothers product or property (rather than about
  a persons reputation).
• Slander of quality or title.

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