INTENTIONAL TORTS
What are the elements of battery?
Intent - having purpose or substantial certainty
Harm/offense - causes pain, injury, or illness/reasonable sense of personal dignity
Contact - direct or indirect
Cause - the harmful contact would not have happened if not for the defendant’s actions
Chris intends to feign punching John while joking around. John ducks, not wanting to play with Chris's nonsense. Chris accidentally punches John in the face, breaking his nose.
Is Chris liable?
Yes, for battery under transferred intent.
What is the umbrella rule for negligence?
Having a duty which is breached and is the cause and proximate cause of damage.
What are the umbrella rules for factual and proximate cause?
Factual cause - “but for” the defendant’s negligence, harm would not have occurred.
Proximate cause - the injury or harm was among the array of defendant’s scope/array of foreseeable risk.
What is the other name for "respondeat superior"?
Vicarious liability.
How is third party intentional infliction of emotional distress spotted?
The plaintiff is physically present and the defendant knows they are present or may be present;
There must be a physical manifestation of the effect of the tort.
!!!SPECIAL QUESTION!!! - EACH CORRECT SPOT AND PASS/FAIL IS WORTH 200
Tiana and Cory are throwing eggs out of the window of Cory's window at passing cars. One of the car windows was open, and Tiana happens to throw the egg perfectly through the window, hitting the driver and splattering egg on the passenger. The driver passes out and spins out of control, hitting several cars on the way and eventually coming to rest in the yard of a neighbor, completely obliterating her limited edition, rare decorative lawn gnomes. The passenger, allergic to eggs, goes into anaphylactic shock. As help is arriving to administer an EpiPen, the ambulance slips on the egg remnants on the street from all the other eggs Cory and Tiana threw out the window. The ambulance crashed, injuring the EMTs inside. Because of this, they were unable to reach the passenger, and she died of her interaction with the egg. The driver then woke up, traumatized by waking up next to her newly dead sister. The driver has had to go to therapy for this accident, having constant nightmares of her dead sister's face. She can no longer drive due to trauma, and therefore lost her job.
What are Tiana and/or Cory liable for?
Concerted action
Negligence to driver
Conversion under transferred intent to neighbor
Trespass to chattel to driver car
Failed negligence to EMTs - professional rescuers
Survival to driver/passenger
Wrongful death to driver/passenger
Negligent infliction of emotional distress to driver
What are all of the forms of breach?
Unstructured/Basic, Structured/Learned Hand Method, Custom, Res Ipsa Loquitur, Negligence Per Se, Notice & Opportunity to Cure
Is intervening (superseding) cause a factual or proximate cause?
Proximate cause.
Name three special relationships in which there is a preexisting duty under nonfeasance.
Common carrier to passengers; innkeeper to guests; business or possessor of land open to public; employer to employees in imminent danger or injured or ill; school with students; landlord to tenants; custodian to those in custody if custodian has superior ability to protect; parent with dependent children; custodian; employer when employment facilitates harm; mental-health professional with patients.
What is the difference between trespass to chattel and conversion?
Trespass to chattel is substantial interference and requires damages in part, rewarded damages in part.
Conversion is substantial interference that exercises complete dominion over the chattel and damaged to the point where it is no longer the original item, rewarded damages in the full amount of the chattel.
Julian falls asleep in one of the study rooms in the library. The security guard closes up for the night. Unaware that Julian was still there, the security guard locks all of the doors and leaves. An hour later, the security guard returns to retrieve their house keys that they accidentally left. Upon return, they notice the lone light coming off of Julian's study room. The security guard goes to turn off the light and notices Julian asleep at his desk. They gently wake up Julian and instruct him to leave.
Is the security guard liable for false imprisonment? Why or why not?
No - no intent, no awareness of confinement, no harm while confined.
Pure Economic Harm
What is the difference between preexisting condition rule and eggshell skull doctrine?
Preexisting condition rule (factual cause)- even if there was an innocent cause of harm, when the defendant is also a cause, he will be held liable for the part he caused.
Eggshell skull doctrine (proximate cause) - (must have some kind of pre-weakness by plaintiff) as long as harm is foreseeable, extent of the harm is within the defendant’s scope of foreseeable risk.
What is the name for when you have multiple defendant negligent actors, you can sue one for all the damages and that defendant will sue the others for contribution?
Joint and severally liable.
Under what circumstances is necessity applicable as a defense to trespass?
When the tortfeasor is trying to prevent greater harm or loss of life.
Jamarr is driving down a mountainous road at night with his highbeams on and at the proper speed limit. As he goes around a blind turn, all of a sudden, a deer appears in his lane. In his tunnel vision of seeing himself hit the deer at 50 mph, he swerves into the opposite lane of traffic. There was another car travelling in that lane without headlights on. Jamarr, in fear of hitting the deer and unable to see the oncoming car, hits the other car, totaling the vehicle and severely injuring its driver. The deer frolicks away unharmed.
Is Jamarr liable for Negligence?
Three possibilities:
Negligence per se - not liable
Contributory negligence - not liable
Comparative negligence - partially liable
What are the five steps of the attractive nuisance dotrine?
Foreseeable that children are likely trespass;
Possessor knows condition is likely to cause serious injury;
Children don’t realize risk involved by trespassing;
The burden of taking precaution is less than probability of injury;
Landowner fails to take precaution.
Landowner owes duty of reasonable care to rescuer of child
What is one thing that all of the methods/theories of factual cause have in common?
They fail the "but for" causation test.
What is the difference between wrongful death actions and survival actions?
Wrongful death (family members) - surviving family may bring a wrongful death action for the death of a relative to recover funeral expenses, lost support, and loss of society.
Survival (estate, person is dead but the cause of action survives them) - plaintiff’s estate may recover losses that the plaintiff endured while alive.
What is the tort Cunningham most often commits against her students? Spot it and outline it.
Assault or IIED.
EX:
Cunningham committed assault against her students when she threw candy around the room on Halloween. Assault is the (1) intentional causing apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact, or (2) intent to cause harmful or offensive bodily contact that misses. She intentionally caused apprehension of imminent harm when she feigned throwing candy at her students and they ducked. She also intended to cause harmful and offensive bodily contact when she eventually threw the candy, but due to poor aim missed the students.
Can Warnoyster (Warner and Royster) successfully bring a claim of IIED against Cunningham for outing them as a couple in the middle of Torts? Why or why not?
Yes.
Name all of the types of visitors a land possessor may have and their respective duties to these visitors.
Business guest - invitees, ordinary care for duty to inspect, repair, and warn of danger.
Social guest - licensees, ordinary care to make safe known dangers.
Trespassers - no duty, except willful or reckless harm.
What is the difference between the substantial factor test, alternative causation method, and concerted action?
Substantial factor test - used when there are concurrent negligent actors who are independent causes of harm.
Alternative causation method - when you have two or more negligent actors and only one of the actors is responsible for the harm caused, burden of proof shifts to the actors to prove who is responsible for causing the harm.
Concerted action - when there are multiple defendants acting in concert pursuant to a common design or aiding the other in action.
Name the evolution of the rules of negligent infliction of emotional distress.