UBE-Torts

No.

• -D must be acting intentionally
• -Person acts intentionally when they desire to produce the legally forbidden consequence OR they know it is certain to result

• 1. D commits harmful or offensive contact
• -harmful: Causes a physical injury
• -offensive: requires you to make judgement about offensiveness - contact is unpermitted by a person of ordinary sensitivity (objective test)
• 2. Contact must be with the P's person
• -P's person includes anything connected to P/anything P is touching
• 3. Intent

• 1. D must place P in a reasonable apprehension
• -Apprehension: (i) P has to have knowledge that they're about to be touched (ii) does not require anxiety, fear, intimidation
• 2. Apprehension must be of an immediate battery
• -Words alone lack immediacy; need conduct too
• -Words can negate immediacy and defeat cause of action if there are words + conduct
• 3. Intent

If D threatens a battery by pointing a gun at you, but it is empty, D lacks ability to complete battery.

• -Just need reasonable apprehension that the gun is loaded - reasonable to think that if a gun is pointed at you that it could be loaded
• -All about KNOWLEDGE

• 1. D must commit an act of restraint
• -Threats are sufficient (based on ordinary sensitivity)
• -Omission/Failure to Act is sufficient
• -D must be aware of circumstances
• 2. P must be confined to a bounded area
• -If mobility is limited, it is a bounded area
• -Area is not bounded if there is a reasonable means of escape that can be discovered
• -Escape cannot be dangerous, disgusting, humiliating, or hidden
• 3. Intent

• D can be held liable for acting recklessly and intentionally
• -Reckless: act with utter disregard of the effect on someone else

• 1. D engages in outrageous conduct
• -Exceeds all bounds of decency tolerated in a civil society
• -3 Indicators of outrageous conduct
• -If D has knowledge of P's weaknesses or sensitivity, outrageous to exploit them
• -Mere Insults=never outrageous conduct
• 2. P suffer severe emotional distress
• -No specific evidentiary evidence necessary
• 3. Intent

• (1) Bad behavior is continuous or repetitive
• (2) D is a common carrier or innkeeper
• (3) P is a member of a fragile class of society
• (young children, elderly, pregnant women)

• 1. D must commit an act of physical invasion
• -2 ways to commit the act: (1) Enter the property (2) Throw something on someone's land
• 2. Act must interfere with P's exclusive possession of the land
• -Ownership of land includes air space and below property out to a reasonable distance
• 3. Intent

• An intentional interference with personal property
• -Ways to Interfere: (1) deliberately damage it (2) steal

• Damages: Harm is relatively modest
• Remedy: Cost of repair

• An intentional interference with personal property
• -Ways to Interfere: (1) deliberately damage it (2) steal

• Damages: Degree of interference is great
• Remedy: Cost of repair AND fair market value
• -Mistake of ownership will NOT excuse you from liability

• (1) Consent
• (2) Protected Privileges
• (3) Necessity

Only person with legal capacity can give valid consent (mentally disabled can give consent commensurate to their age)

• (1) Express Consent
• (2) Implied Consent
• (a) ...Arise from Custom or Usage
• (b) ...Based on D's Reasonable interpretation of P's objective conduct and surrounding circumstances

Exception: Consent given as a result of fraud or duress is invalid/ignored

• P goes to a place or engages in an activity where various invasions are routine. Assumed that a person is aware of this and consented
• Ex) Getting tackled in football

• All entitled to read a situation, pick up on social cues, act according to social norms
• -Standard: reasonableness

• D will claim he is responding to a threat emanating from the P. 
• (1) Self-defense
• (2) Defense of others
• (3) Defense of Property

• Requirements:
• (1) Threat must be in progress or imminent (no preemptive acts or retaliation)
• (2) D must have reasonable belief that the threat is genuine
• -Reasonable mistake about the threat will not destroy the defense
• (3) Scope: Must limit yourself to appropriate force
• -Can never use deadly force to protect property

• Only a defense in the 3 property torts (trespass to land, to chattel, conversion)
• (1) Public Necessity
• -D commits a property tort in an emergency to protect a community
• -Emergency is ongoing and worsening
• -Absolute immunity/defense
• (2) Private Necessity
• -Protecting an interest of D's own or one other person
• -Right of sanctuary on someone else's land to escape harm
• -Not an absolute defense
• -Consequences
• (1) D liable for compensatory damages
• (2) Not liable for punitive or nominal damages
• (3) As long as emergency persists, P must tolerate Ds presence on land

• (1) D must make a statement identifying the P (tendency to adversely affect their reputation)
• (2) Publication
• -Deliberate or negligent sharing to at least one person
• (3) Damage
• (a) Libel (written statement; damage is presumed)
• (b) Slander per se
• -statement is oral, damages presumed
• -4 Categories: (1) statement relating to Ps profession/business, (2) crime of moral turpitude, (3) statement imputing unchastity to a woman, (4) statement that P suffers a loathsome disease
• (c) Slander (need to prove economic harm)

• (1) Consent
• (2) Truth (Burden on D)
• (3) Privileges
• (a) Absolute Privilege
• (1) Spouses (2) Officers of Government (judicial includes lawyers, witnesses, and judge)
• (b) Qualified Privilege
• -Arises when there is public interest in candor
• (1) Need reasonable and good faith belief statement is true, and (2) Confine yourself to relevant material

• P has to prove defamation elements + 2 extra elements
• (1) Falsity (inaccurate statement)
• (2) Fault
• -There was culpability in making a false statement
• -If P is public figure: show falsehood was made with (1) knowledge it was false, or (2) reckless disregard of its truth
• -If P is private figure: negligence standard; statement made without reasonable effort to verify

• (1) Appropriation
• (2) Intrusion
• (3) False Light
• (4) Disclosure

• D uses P's name or image for commercial purposes
• -Exam Cautions:
• (1) News Worthiness Exception: Use of name or picture in newspaper is not actionable
• (2) Tort claim not limited to celebrities

• Invasion of P's physical seclusion in a way highly offensive to an average person
• -P must be in a place where this is a reasonable expectation of privacy

• (False Gossip)
• Widespread dissemination of a material falsehood about the P that would be highly offensive to an average person
• -Overlap with defamation, but false light does not have to damage P's reputation

• (Tort of True Gossip)
• Widespread dissemination of confidential information about P that is highly offensive to an average person (financial, medical records)
• -Newsworthiness Exception: Interpreted broadly, investigative journalism.

• (1) Consent (for all 4)
• (2) Defamation Privileges
• (3) Absolute & Qualified Privileges 
• -False light, Disclosure

• (1) Duty
• (2) Breach
• (3) Causation
• (4) Damage

• Foreseeable Victims (Palsgraf)
• -Zone of Danger

• Exception: Rescuers
• If person who began problem far away was a rescuer, then we do not apply Palsgraf, they have duty of care
• -Danger Invites Rescue

• The amount exercised by a reasonably prudent person (RPP) acting under similar circumstances
• -Make no allowances for Ds shortcomings. Person has no characteristics
• -Inflexible and harsh standard

• -If D has superior skill or knowledge, RPP + that skill/knowledge
• -If D has physical attributes relevant to problem, they become part of RPP