Civil Wrong

Tort: A “Civil Wrong” Torts refer to a general classification covering civil causes of action providing private remedy for injury to one party caused by the tortious conduct of another party. The goal of tort law is to shift / distribute losses from victims to perpetrators.

Compensation: Through the award of damages. The object of compensation is to place the victim in the position he/she was before the tort was committed. Difficult to do, so we compensate.

Assault: Occurs when one person intentionally puts another in reasonable fear of an imminent offensive or harmful bodily contact

Battery: Harmful or offensive touching ­ includes pushing, punching, spitting, or shooting.
False Imprisonment: The intentional confinement of a person against the person’s will and without lawful privilege (ex. being handcuffed or locked in a room or car).
Defamation: Involves false and defamatory statement concerning another. Must be false, communicated to a 3rd party and damaging to the victims reputation.
Libel: Publication of defamatory matter in a physical form; actionable without proof of special damages.

Slander: Publication of defamatory matter in oral or non­libel form; not actionable without proof unless it imputes serious moral defamations.

Conversion: When property is stolen, destroyed, or used in a manner inconsistent with the owner’s right. Its criminal counterpart is theft.

Trespass to Chattels: Defendant intentionally interferes through physical contact or dispossession. Intent to act, not motive, is required, with actual damages shown. Dispossession involves taking items from plaintiff’s possession without consent, blocking plaintiff’s access to them, or destroying them while in Plaintiff’s possession.

Trespass to Land: Defendant enter plaintiff’s land or causes a person or thing to do so. Defendant remains on plaintiff’s land after privilege to remain expires. Intent only is needed; manner may be direct or indirect.

Negligence: The most common tort, intent is not needed. Conduct which falls below the legal standard for protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. Objective test of defendant’s actions compared to that which a reasonable person would do in the same situation. Anticipating what others may reasonably do should regulate conduct.

Reasonable­Man Standard: Requires that we act with the care and good judgment of a reasonable person as not to cause injury to others.
Defense to Negligence:
● Contributory negligence: Defendant may not have to pay, his negligence may only have been part of the problem (some states)
● Comparative negligence: Applies when a plaintiff is partially at fault therefore the defendants payment will be reduced (most states)
● Assumption of the risk: If plaintiff is aware of the danger, but decides to subject themselves to the risk anyway

Negligence Per Se: Violation of a standard of care set by statute. Example: injuring a pedestrian while illegally drunk driving. Conditions are as follows… ● Statute prohibits or requires action.

● Defendant’s actions violate statute.
● Plaintiff’s injuries are the kind the statute was designed to protect against. ● Plaintiff is within the group the statute was designed to protect.
Product Liability: Liability associated with harm caused by a consumer product. Initially, only seller was at risk, now liability extends through entire chain of manufacture.
Strict Liability: Concept where liability results, regardless of fault. Strict liability does not involve fault, but rather liability for abnormally dangerous activities where harm results or where products liability is involved

No Fault: No­fault systems generally exempt individuals from the usual liability for causing body injury if they do so in a car accident; when individuals purchase “liability” insurance under those regimes, the insurance covers bodily injury of the insured and the insured’s passengers caused by a car accident, regardless of which party would be liable under ordinary common law tort rules. No­fault insurance has the goal of lowering premium costs by avoiding expensive litigation over the causes of accidents, while providing quick payments for injuries or loss of property. Further, no­fault systems often grant “set” or “fixed” compensation  for certain injuries regardless of the unique aspects of the injury or the individual injured.

No­Fault Threshold: Significant or permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medial probability, significant/permanent scarring or disfigurement or death.

Worker’s Compensation: The law requires that every employer subject to the Act must provide some way of assuring that it can pay benefits to its workers should they become injured. Most employers in Michigan provide this security by purchasing an insurance policy from a private insurance company. This eliminates fault in cases of injury by an employee while working.

Proximate Cause: An event sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury to be held to be the cause of that injury

Agency: A relationship between two persons in which one acts on behalf of the other  Principal (P): is bound by acts of agent

Agent (A): acts on behalf of principal, subject to Principal’s control
Detour: Occurs when an employee or agent makes a minor departure from his employer’s charge.

Frolic: Constitutes a major departure wherein the employee is acting on his own and for his own benefit rather than a minor sidetrack in the course of obeying an order from the employer
Patent: A patent grants an inventor exclusive rights to make, use, sell, and import an