Torts
When is self defence available to a defendant?
You must exert force within the reasonable limits of what would be necessary to protect yourself.
Types of easements and characteristics
Express
Implied
Necessity
Prescription
Proprietary estoppel
Statutory easements
Public rights of way
Basic factors of consideration
What is evidence of the contract
1) Detriment - benefit
2) Bargained for
3) Legal value
4) Sufficiency (not adequacy)
How can you tell a regulatory offence from a true crime?
Jurisdiction, whether something is in the criminal code or not
Ian slipped and fell at Santa's toy shop. The daily activities of the toy shop are managed by the Elf Union. Ian sues Santa and the elf union. Santa, who is somehow in a rough financial situation, would like to avoid liability. He knows that the day Ian fell, the space had been rented out to the Reindeer association for their annual Christmas party. What might Santa do to defend himself and deflect some blame?
He could third-party the reindeer!
What are the four characteristics of any easement and what case do these factors come from?
Ellenborough park
1. Dominant tenement and servient tenement
2. Easement must accommodate the dominant land
3. Dominant and servient cannot be owned by same person
4. Rights over land must form content of a grant (must not reduce servient land to nothing)
Provide several examples of the moment when acceptance occurs. Face to face? By email? By letter?
What about withdrawing an offer?
Remember the postal acceptance rule
Exception to the postal acceptance rule - withdrawal of offer
Describe the sort of language that parliament would have to use to displace the presumption of intentional or reckless conduct in criminal code provisions.
Dangerous, marked departure, anything to signify a heightened intent required.
What were some of the major developments in the creation of the Tort of Intentional Infliction of Nervous Shock?
Wilkinson - Not recognized as its own cause of action, you could use nervous shock as a symptom
Radovskis - IINS still requires a visible and provable illness - this is a very high bar to clear
Samms - IINS was recognized as its own cause of action in some US states with objective "reasonable" standards
Ahluwahlia - Full circle - you can now use INSS as part of evidence to show a pattern of coercive behaviour in support of other torts
What is required for regulation to amount to expropriation in Canada?
Mariner v Nova Scotia
1) Removal of virtually all property rights and uses of the land and
2) Acquisition of title to the land by a statutory authority
Ian is camping in an unusually remote location. He has had a particularly bad day, and when he gets to the campsite, he yells into the trees: "If someone were to give me 1 dollar right now, I would give them my tent just to take this stupidly heavy thing off my hands!" Gabriel, who happened to be hiking the middle of nowhere at the same time, heard Ian's yell and came running. He had forgotten his tent at home so he offers up 1 dollar to Ian and says "I accept." Do Ian and Gabriel have a contract?
Issues of seriousness
Parliament intends to write a law that will create a new tax to provide additional funding for Santa Clause's toy production. Assume that they have the authority to do so. Describe the legislative drafting process and any special considerations due to the nature of the bill.
Must originate in the House of Commons since it is a money bill.
Which cases cite other cases that you have read in Torts H?
1. Jones v Tsige, 2012 ONCA - Cites to Grant v Torstar, Moterwell v Motherwell, Hollingsworth v BCTV
2. Bettel v Yim, 1978 Ontario County Court - Cites to Wilkinson v Downton, Gambriel v Caparelli
3. Ahluwahlia v Aluwhalia, 2022 ONSC - Tsige v Jones
4. Canada Easy Investment Store v. MacAskill, 2022 BCSC - Cites to Grant v Torstar Corp
What are the 4 requirements for creating a trust?
1) Capacity
2) Three certainties
3) Constituted by transfer of property to trustee
4) Formalities
Torts H offers Ian $260 dollars if he makes a review jeopardy game. For every question, he writes, they will pay him $10. He gets halfway through the drafting of the game, submits those questions for $130 dollars and then he dies in a tragic slip and fall at Santa's workshop.
On behalf of Ian's estate, his mother indicates her intention to finish Ian's jeopardy game and claim the remaining $130 dollars to pay for his funeral.
Torts H realizes that without a peer mentor, they don't have any budget to pay for the jeopardy game. So, they tear up the work Ian has completed and all of his notes so that his mother has no chance of finishing the work.
Could Ian's mother sue for breach of contract?
Lots of issues here - 3rd party?
Can sue on behalf of the estate, unilateral contracts persist after death and must allow attempt to perform
Parliament, fearing that Santa Clause has not been properly regulated after a series of brutal slip and falls and visitors being trampled by reindeer, decided to enact the following new provisions in the criminal code.
Assume that Santa Clause's workshop is in fact, located in the very far north of Nunavut.
The "Run run Rudolph act"1. Anyone who knowingly or recklessly allows someone to be trampled by a reindeer is guilty of the offence of reindeer running unless
A. they took all reasonable steps to avoid free-range reindeer on their property
2. Anyone who is found to have ran reindeer under paragraph 1 is guilty of first degree murder if they have in their possession a red nose reindeer notwithstanding whether they took reasonable steps to prevent the reindeer run or not.
Analyze the above criminal code provision in light of criminal law principles.
This will be fun
Which intentional torts were the most influential in the development of the tort of breach of privacy in Ontario?
Open ended - this will probably be very similar to the essay questions that you are asked to write
What are the three certainties in trust law?
1) Certainty of intention
2) Certainty of objects (beneficiaries and trustees)
3) Certainty of subjects (what is included)
Is past consideration good consideration?
General rule: No
Eastwood v Kenyon
Exception: Where the nature of someone's service implies that they were not working for free
Lampliegh v Brathwait
How does the Quebec secession reference inform the Canadian Constitution?
Four principles of the constitution
1. Federalism
2. Democracy
3. Constitutionalism and the rule of law
4. Protection of minority rights