Tort Law

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Tort Law

• Jody Blanke
• Professor of Computer Information Systems and Law

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Torts

• Strict Liability
• Intentional Torts
• Negligence

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Strict Liability

• Liability without fault
• neither intent nor negligence need be shown
• Ultrahazardous activities
• e.g., dynamite blasting
• e.g., ownership of wild animals
• lions and tigers and bears

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Intentional Torts

• Battery
• Assault
• False Imprisonment
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

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Fraud

• 1. An intentional misrepresentation
• 2. Of a material fact
• 3. Made in order to induce some action by the
  defendant
• 4. With justifiable reliance on the misstatement
• 5. And damage as a result of such reliance

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Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations

• 10.5B award against Texaco for interfering with
  Penzoils contract to buy Getty (later settled
  for 3B)
• Ditch the dish

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Defamation

• Libel and slander
• Truth is a defense
• For media defendants, public officials and public
  figures must show actual malice
• e.g., Richard Jewell - Wikipedia, CourtTV

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Invasion of Privacy

• Appropriation of name or likeness
• e.g., Michael Jordan Wine
• Intrusion upon seclusion
• e.g., Jackie O, Holiday Inn, Mazzios Pizza, Sean
  Penn, Bill Gates, Bob Dylan, Katz, Kyllo
• False light
• e.g., Parade Magazine Teenage Prostitution
• Publication of private embarrassing facts
• e.g., Joe Hero

Silvia Leyva at Café Intermezzo
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Trespass

• Trespass to land
• Conversion
• Trespass to personal property (trespass to
  chattels)

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Negligence

• Duty
• Breach of Duty
• Causation
• Injury

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Duty of Care

• Reasonable person standard
• Is there a legal duty?
• e.g., Lady Di, Seinfeld finale, Good Samaritan
  laws

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Breach of Duty

• What would the reasonable person do in similar
  circumstances?
• Professional standard malpractice
• Negligence per se
• Res ipsa loquitur
• burden of proof shifting doctrine

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Causation

• Actual cause (causation in fact)
• but for analysis
• e.g., Rube Goldberg cartoons, Mouse Trap

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Causation

• Proximate cause (legal cause)
• foreseeabilty
• e.g., Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad
• e.g., Crankshaw v. Piedmont Driving Club

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Injury

• Plaintiff must prove injury
• Injury need not be personal injury

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Defenses to Negligence

• Assumption of Risk
• Fellow-Servant Rule
• Contributory Negligence
• e.g., the rolling stop
• Comparative Negligence
• pure comparative negligence
• modified comparative negligence (50 rule)
  (majority rule today Georgia law)

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Product Liability

• Warranty (contract) law
• Negligence
• Strict liability

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Rationale

• Stream of commerce theory
• manufacturer hopes to profit must pay price
• Last best chance
• manufacturer in best position to prevent injury
• Economic theory
• dangerous products will price themselves out of
  market

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Lawn Darts
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Early Cases

• MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. (1916)
• eliminated privity of contract requirement
• consumer can sue manufacturer
• Greenman v. Yuba Power Products (1963)
• applied strict liability in tort
• Manufacturer responsible for product it places in
  the market

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Restatement (Second) of Torts

• 402A provides
• 1. One who sells any product in a defective
  condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or
  consumer or to his property is subject to
  liability for physical harm thereby caused to the
  ultimate user or consumer, or to his property, if
  
• (a) the seller is engaged in the business of
  selling such a product, and
• (b) it is expected to and does reach the user or
  consumer without substantial change in the
  condition in which it is sold.
• 2. The rule stated in Subsection (1) applies
  although
• (a) the seller has exercised all possible care in
  the preparation and sale of his product, and
• (b) the user or consumer has not bought the
  product from or entered into any contractual
  relation with the seller.

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Restatement (Third) of Torts

• Defines defect
• A product is defective when, at the time of sale
  or distribution, contains a manufacturing defect,
  is defective in design, or is defective because
  of inadequate instructions or warnings

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Manufacturing Defect

• Failure to meet design specifications
• e.g., Inspected by 17

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Design Defect

• Faulty design
• e.g., Ford Pinto

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Inadequate Warning

• Failure to warn
• e.g., guns and peanut butter

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Defenses

• Assumption of Risk
• Comparative Fault
• Misuse