TORTS

Question 1

Key phrase for any negligence question:

Answer 1

A defendant must fail to exercise such care as a reasonable person in his position would have exercised; his conduct must be a breach of the duty to prevent the foreseeable risk of harm to anyone in the plaintiff’s position, and this breach must cause the plaintiff’s damages.

Question 2

What is the purpose of res ipsa loquitur?

Answer 2

It establishes a prima facie case of negligence only where direct evidence of the circumstances of the injury is lacking.

Question 3

What are the elements of res ipsa loquitur?

Answer 3

(1) the event causing injury would normally not have occurred in the absence of negligence;
(2) the defendant was in exclusive control of the instrumentality that likely caused the injury; and
(3) the plaintiff must not have voluntarily contributed to the event causing his injury.

Question 4

What are the four categories of slander per se?

Answer 4

1. statements accusing someone of a crime;
2. statements alleging that someone has a foul or loathsome disease;
3. statements adversely reflecting on a person’s fitness to conduct her business or trade; and
4. statements imputing serious sexual misconduct to someone (almost always to a woman).

Question 5

Invasion of privacy claims

covered under the

Freedom to Protect Secrets Act

(FPSA)

Answer 5

False light - publication of facts that place a plaintiff in a false light;

Private facts made public - public disclosure of private facts about a plaintiff.

Seclusion - intrusion on a plaintiff’s affairs or seclusion;

Appropriation - appropriation of plaintiff’s personality for a defendant’s own commercial advantage

Question 6

What are the three ways that a D can be held strictly liable?

Answer 6

1. by keeping a wild animal;
2. by conducting an abnormally dangerous activity; or
3. by selling a defective product (strict products liability)

Question 7

Define “abnormally dangerous activity.”

Answer 7

Abnormally dangerous activities are ones that cannot be performed with complete safety no matter how much care is taken — that’s why they’re a source of strict liability.

Question 8

Strict Product Liability

In BC the CDC needed a NP

Answer 8

BUSINESS: The seller must be in the business of selling the 1055 product (that is, he can’t be a casual seller or a user, even one who uses the product while performing a paid service that does not incorporate a transfer of the product);

CAUSATION: Damage must result from the defect (a defendant is liable for any harm to persons or property);

CONTROL: The defective condition must have existed when the product left the defendant’s control;

DEFECT: The product must have been defective;

CHANGES: The product must not have been expected to undergo significant changes before it got to the user (or, it must not actually undergo significant changes);

NO PRIVITY: The defendant’s duty extends to anyone foreseeably endangered by the product (this means there’s no privity requirement).