CL623 Torts I Module 1 PDF

CL623: Torts I Module 1: Different Types of Torts Video Transcript **** 1. Welcome to the Different Types of Torts. 2. In this presentation we will discuss the di...

CL623: Torts I Module 1: Different Types of Torts Video Transcript **** 1. Welcome to the Different Types of Torts. 2. In this presentation we will discuss the different types of torts and use some examples to illustrate the different types of torts. 3. There are three main types of torts, Intentional Torts, Negligence, and Strict Liability. Most torts fit within one of these categories. 4. There are some similarities between these types of torts and there are some differences. The similarities and differences are found in the elements or requirements of the Tort. Every tort has required elements that must be met. 5. Here are the elements of an intentional tort called battery. The defendant must intend to cause harmful or offensive contact and that contact must occur. If those elements are met, then battery has been committed unless there is some defense to battery. You will learn more about defenses when you learn about each of these torts. For now, just focus on the elements of the tort itself. 6. Here are the elements of a negligence claim: duty, breach, causation and harm or damages. If the requirements of these elements are met, then the defendant is negligent unless there is some defense. Here too, you will learn about defenses later. For now just focus on the elements and how the elements of negligence are different than the elements of battery. One important difference is intent. One of the things you should notice as we talk about these three types of torts is the concept of intent and how it differs for the torts. 7. Intent is an important element for Intentional torts. These torts occur when the defendant intends to commit the elements of the tort. For example, with the tort of battery that we looked at earlier, the question is if the defendant intentionally caused harmful or offensive contact. 1  Intent is generally defined as the defendant “desires the result or knows to a substantial certainty that it will occur.” So applying that to battery the analysis becomes whether the defendant desired the harmful or offensive contact, or knew to a substantial certainty it would occur. You’ll learn more about that when you learn about battery. 8. Other examples of intentional torts include Assault, False Imprisonment, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, and Torts to property. Just like with battery, the definition of intent becomes part of the analysis and is based on the elements or requirements of the tort. 9. Remember the tort of negligence mentioned earlier. Here, the focus is not on the intent of the defendant. Instead the elements are whether the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff, if that duty was breached, if the breach caused harm, and if there are damages. 10. Some key concepts in negligence are due care, reasonableness and foreseeability. Due care generally means the effort a person makes to avoid harming another. Whether that effort is sufficient or not is often measured by a reasonableness standard. Foreseeability places some limits on the harm that a defendant is responsible for. Not all injuries or harm can be foreseen and generally a defendant is only liable for harms that are foreseeable. 11. Some classic examples of negligence are car accidents, medical malpractice, and slip and falls. Let’s take the slip and fall as an example and work in some of those key concepts. Let’s say you go out shopping and while walking into a store, you slip on some ice and fall and break your arm. Since the store is open for business and is inviting you to shop there, it owes a duty to maintain its premises in order to protect against foreseeable risks and harm to customers. If it is snowy and icy out, the duty would likely include shoveling and putting down ice melt and sand to try to keep the entry way from being slippery. If the store did not take reasonable steps to do that, then it breached its duty, and if the breach caused you to fall and break your arm, it would be liable for the damages that fall caused to you because it is foreseeable 2  that you could fall and get hurt if the store did not take reasonable steps to remove ice. Let’s contrast that with a situation where you go shopping and it’s a nice warm sunny day and some other customer throws down their cup of soda as they enter the store and the ice gets out on to the entry way. Just a minute or two later, you come up and slip on that ice. In that situation, the store could argue that it was not liable for your injuries because it was not foreseeable and it did not have a chance to find out about and clean up the ice before you stepped on it. You’ll learn more about negligence and the requirements of negligence later in the course. 12. Another type of tort is strict liability which means the defendant can be liable regardless of any intent to harm and regardless of whether they used due care or not. Examples here include dangerous products, injuries from animals, and dangerous activities. Let’s take dangerous activities as an example. The question here is if the activity is abnormally dangerous. If so, the defendant can be liable regardless of how much care they use with the activity. Using dynamite is an example. If someone is blasting with dynamite in an area where there are people, they can be strictly liable for any damage that occurs regardless of how careful they were in using the dynamite. You learn more about dangerous activities as well as strict liability for dangerous products and for animals later in the course. 13. In this presentation we discussed three different types of torts: Intentional Torts, Negligence, and Strict Liability; and we used some examples to illustrate them. Please email your professor with any questions. 3