Torts Flashcards
(26 cards)
Negligence
Under common law, negligence is the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under the same set of facts. To establish a prima facie case of negligence, the following elements must be present: (1) duty, (2) breach of duty, (3) actual and proximate cause, and (4) damages.
Trespasser
Under common law, a trespasser is a person who enters the landowner’s land without permission or privilege.
Licensee
Under common law, a licensee is a person who enters the landowner’s land for his own purpose or business, with the landowner’s permission, including social guests.
Invitee
Under common law, an invitee is a person who enters the landowner’s land because he was expressly or impliedly invited by the landowner.
Contributory negligence
Under common law, a defendant in a contributory negligence jurisdiction may not be liable for negligence if the plaintiff was injured, in part, because of his own negligence.
Comparative negligence
Under common law, comparative negligence allows a plaintiff, who would have been completely barred from recovery under contributory negligence, to recover a percentage of his claimed damages.
Joint and several liability
Under common law, multiple defendants may be joint and severally liable if two or more tortious acts combine to proximately cause an indivisible injury to a plaintiff.
Battery
Under common law, battery occurs when the defendant’s voluntary acts cause harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff’s person or extended personality.
Assault
Under common law, assault occurs when the defendant’s voluntary acts cause the plaintiff reasonable apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive conduct.
Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Under common law, intentional infliction of emotional distress occurs when the defendant, by extreme and outrageous conduct, intentionally or recklessly causes the plaintiff severe /sɪ’vɪə/ mental distress.
False imprisonment
Under common law, false imprisonment occurs when the defendant acts to intentionally cause confinement /kən’faɪnmənt/ or restraint /rɪ’streɪnt/ of the plaintiff within a bounded /’baundid/ 界限area.
Necessity
Under common law, a person is justified in interfering with real or personal property of another when it is reasonably and apparently necessary to avoid threatened imminent /’ɪmɪnənt/ 即将发生的 injury and the potential for injury far outweighs the harmful intrusion of another’s property interest.
Negligence per se
Under common law, negligence per se is a legal doctrine that provides that in certain circumstances a safety statute or regulation may be used to set the standard of care in a negligence case. To establish a breach of that standard under negligence per se, the following elements must be present: (1) the defendant violated the statute or regulation, (2) the violation caused the type of harm that the statute or regulation is designed to protect, and (3) the plaintiff belongs to the protected class the statute or regulation is designed to protect.
Res ipsa loquitur /res-ipsa-lo-kwi-tə/ 事物本身证明
Under common law, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur holds that, in some circumstances, the mere fact of an accident’s occurrence raises an inference of unreasonable conduct so as to establish a breach of the duty owed to the plaintiff.
Self-defense
Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect against injury when he reasonably believes he is facing an immediate threat of force.
Defense of others
Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect a third party against injury when he reasonably believes the third party could have used the same force to protect himself.
Defense of property and chattels /ˈtʃætl/ 动产
Under common law, a person may use force that is reasonably necessary to protect property against the commission of a tort.
Assumption of risk
Under common law, the plaintiff may be barred from recovery if the defendant can demonstrate that the plaintiff voluntarily and knowingly assumed the risk of any damage caused by the defendant’s acts. A plaintiff will not recover for a negligence claim if he assumed the risk of any damage created by the defendant’s action.
Intentional Tort
Under common law, an intentional tort is a civil wrong resulting from an intentional act by the wrongdoer.
Common law defamation
Under common law, a communication is defamatory /dɪˈfæmətɔːri/ if it tends to harm the reputation of another as to lower him in the estimation /estɪˈmeɪʃn/ of the community or to deter /dɪˈtɜːr/ 阻止 third person from associating or dealing with him.
Libel/ˈlaɪbl/ 文字诽谤
Under common law, libel is defamation that has been embodied in writing or other permanent form.
Slander
Under common law, slander consists of verbal statements so damaging to the plaintiff’s reputation that they are treated as defamatory.
Invasion of right to privacy 侵犯、干扰
Under common law, invasion of the right to privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause.
Trespass to chattels /’tʃætl/ 动产
Under common law, trespass to chattels is an interference /ɪntərˈfɪrəns/ with the plaintiff’s right of possession of personal property.
