107 Definitions Torts

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01 Intentional Tort

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Under common law, an intentional tort is a civil wrong resulting from an intentional act by the wrongdoer.

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02 Battery

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Under common law, battery occurs when the defendant's voluntary acts cause harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's person or extended personality.

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03 Assault

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Under common law, assault occurs when the defendant's voluntary acts cause the plaintiff reasonable apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive conduct.

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04 False Imprisonment

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Under common law, false imprisonment occurs when the defendant acts to intentionally cause confinement or restraint of the plaintiff within a bounded area.

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05 Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

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Under common law, intentional infliction of emotional distress occurs when the defendant, by extreme and outrageous conduct, intentionally or recklessly causes the plaintiff severe mental distress.

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06 Trespass to Chattels

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Under common law, trespass to chattels is an interference with the plaintiff's right of possession of personal property.

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07 Conversion

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Under common law, conversion is an interference with the plaintiff's right of possession to such a degree that the defendant must pay the plaintiff for the full value of the chattel.

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08 Trespass to Land

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Under common law, trespass to land is the defendant's purposeful physical invasion of the plaintiff's real property.

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09 Consent

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Under common law, consent is the plaintiff's express or implied willingness to subject himself to the defendant's conduct. If the plaintiff consents, what would otherwise be tortious is instead privileged.

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10 Self-Defense

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Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect against injury when he reasonably believes he is facing an immediate threat of force.

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11 Defense of Others

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Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect a third party against injury when he reasonably believes the third party could have used the same force to protect himself.

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12 Defense of Property and Chattels

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Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect property against the commission of a tort.

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13 Necessity

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Under common law, a person is justified in interfering with real or personal property of another when it is reasonably and apparently necessary to avoid threatened imminent injury and the potential for injury far outweighs the harmful intrusion of another's property interest.

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14 Trespasser

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Under common law, a trespasser is a person who enters the land without permission or privilege.

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15 Licensee

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Under common law, a licensee is one who enters the land on his own with the landowner's permission, including social guests.

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16 Invitee

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Under common law, an invitee is anyone who enters onto the property because he was expressly or impliedly invited by the landowner.

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17 Negligence

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Under common law, negligence is the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under the same set of facts. To establish a prima facie case of negligence, the following elements must be present: (1) duty, (2) breach of duty, (3) actual and proximate cause, and (4) damages. A defendant is subject to liability for negligent conduct that is the legal cause of physical harm.

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18 Negligence Per Se

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Under common law, negligence per se is a legal doctrine that holds an act is negligent if it violates a statute or regulation. To establish a prima facie case of negligence per se, the following elements must be present: (1) the defendant violated a statute or regulation, (2) the violation caused the type of harm that the statute or regulation is designed to protect, and (3) the plaintiff belongs to the protected class the statute or regulation was designed to protect.

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19 Res Ipsa Loquitur

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Under common law, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur holds that, in some circumstances, the mere fact of an accident's occurrence raises an inference of negligence so as to establish a prima facie case of negligence.

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20 Contributory Negligence

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Under common law, a defendant in a contributory negligence jurisdiction may not be liable for negligence if the plaintiff was injured, in part, because of his own negligence.

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21 Comparative Negligence

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Under common law, comparative negligence allows a plaintiff, who would have been completely barred from recovery under contributory negligence, to recover a percentage of his claimed damages.

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22 Joint and Several Liability

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Under common law, multiple defendants may be jointly and severally liable if two or more tortious acts combine to proximately cause an indivisible injury to a plaintiff.

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23 Assumption of Risk

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Under common law, the plaintiff may be barred from recovery if the defendant can demonstrate that the plaintiff voluntarily and knowingly assumed the risk of any damage caused by the defendant's acts. A plaintiff will not recover for a negligence claim if he assumed the risk of any damage created by the defendant's action.

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24 Ultrahazardous Activity

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Under common law, an ultrahazardous activity is an activity that involves a substantial risk of serious harm to person or property regardless of whether reasonable care is exercised.

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25 Common Law Defamation

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Under common law, a communication is defamatory if it tends so to harm the reputation of another as to lower him in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him.

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26 Libel

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Under common law, libel is defamation that has been embodied in writing or other permanent form.

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27 Slander

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Under common law, slander consists of verbal statements so damaging to the plaintiff's reputation that they are treated like libel.

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28 Invasion of the Right to Privacy

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Under common law, invasion of the right to privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause.

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29 Intentional Misrepresentation

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Under common law, intentional misrepresentation occurs when a defendant intentionally misrepresents a material fact in order to cause a fraudulent reliance.

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30 Negligent Misrepresentation

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Under common law, negligent misrepresentation occurs when a defendant, in a professional capacity, makes a misrepresentation that causes the plaintiff to rely upon advice or a service that results in pecuniary loss.

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31 Malicious Criminal Prosecution

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Under common law, malicious criminal prosecution occurs when one party files an untrue or baseless criminal complaint against another.

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32 Abuse of Process

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Under common law, abuse of process occurs when one party files an untrue or baseless civil complaint against another.

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33 Tortious Interference with Business Relations

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Under common law, tortious interference with business relationships occurs when a person intentionally and improperly damages the plaintiff's contractual relationships or other business relationships.

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34 Nuisance

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Under common law, a nuisance is the unreasonable invasion of private or public property rights by tortious conduct that substantially impairs another's enjoyment of such property. Tort claims for a nuisance are based on an invasion of property rights or public rights.

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35 Private Nuisance

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Under common law, a private nuisance is any act that substantially and unreasonably interferes with another person's private use or enjoyment of property.

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36 Public Nuisance

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Under common law, a public nuisance is any act that unreasonably interferes with the health, safety, or property rights of the community.

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37 Vicarious Liability

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Under common law, vicarious liability is liability that a supervisory party bears for the actionable conduct of a subordinate associate because of the existence of a special relationships between the two parties.

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38 Wrongful Death Claims

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Under common law, a plaintiff may bring a wrongful death action against a defendant who is liable for a death.