Business Law Chapter 4

• Assault and batter
• False imprisonment
• Intentional infliction
• Defamation
• Invasion of the right to privacy
• Misrepresentation
• Abuse or frivolous litigation
• Wrongful interference

• Assault: Unexcused and intentional act that causes another person to be apprehensive of immediate harm.
• Battery: Assault that results in physical contact.

The intentional confinement or restraint of another person's movement without justification.

An extreme and outrageous act, intentionally committed, that results in severe emotional distress to another

• A false statement of fact, not made under privilege, that is communicated to a third person and that causes damage to a person's reputation. 
• For public figures the plaintiff must prove actual malice.

• Wrongful intrusion into a person's private activity
• Publication of information that places a person in a false light
• Disclosure of private facts that an ordinary person would find objectionable
• Appropriation of identity: using a person's name, picture, or other likeness for commercial purposes without permission.

A false representation made by one party, through misstatement of facts or through conduct, with the intention of deceiving another and on which the other reasonably relies to his or her detriment.

When a person supplies information without having a reasonable basis for believing its truthfulness

• When a person initiates a lawsuit out of malice and without probable cause, and loses the suit, he or she can be sued for the tort of malicious prosecution. 
• Abuse of process: When a person uses a legal process against another improperly or to accomplish a purpose for which it was not designed.

The knowing, intentional interference by a third party with an enforceable contractual relationship or an established business relationship between other parties for the purpose of advancing the economic interests of the third party.

• Trespass to land
• Trespass to personal property
• Conversion
• Disparagement of property

The invasion of another's real property without consent or privilege

Unlawful damaging or interfering with the owner's right to use possess, or enjoy her or his personal property

Wrongfully taking or using the personal property of another without permission

• Any economically injurious falsehood that is made about another's product or property. 
• The term includes the torts of slander of quality and slander of title

Negligence

The careless performance of a legally required duty or the failure to perform a legally required act.

• legal duty of care existed
• defendant breached that duty
• breach caused the plaintiff's injury
• the plaintiff suffered a legally recognizable injury

• assumption of risk: voluntarily enters into a risky situation
• Superseding cause: unforeseen intervening event can break the connection between a wrongful act an in injury to another. 
• contributory: plaintiff who was also negligent
• comparative negligence: both the plaintiff and the defendant's negligence are computed, and the liability is distributed accordingly

• The plaintiff does not need to prove negligence 
• The facts speak for themselves

A type of negligence that may occur if a person violates a statute or an ordinance and the violation causes another to suffer the kind of injury that the statute or ordinance was intended to prevent

• State statutes that prescribe duties and responsibilities in certain circumstances. Violation of these statutes will impose civil liability. 
• Good Samaritan statutes

• A person may be held liable for damages or injuries caused by her or his product or activity. 
• Liability for harms caused by abnormally dangerous activities, by dangerous animals, and by defective products (product liability)

torts that occur in cyber space.