Tort Law and Cases:
A Comparison of Two Cases and Their Potential Frivolity8/22/2010
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Introduction
“A tort is a civil wrong resulting in injury to a person or property”; that is brought before a court to compensate the injured party (Bagley & Savage, 2010, pg 251). In order to prove an intentional tort, the following conditions must be met: 1) Intent 2) Voluntary act by the defendant 3) Causation 4) Injury or Harm.
The following tort cases, Pearson v. Chung and Liebeck v. McDonalds, have been a pinnacle “poster child” for tort reform in the United States. In 2002, frivolous lawsuits cost taxpayers over $233 billion (Insideprison.com, 2006). What is considered a frivolous lawsuit? It is when an attorney
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(Manning-Sossamon.com, 2009)
Originally, Mr. Pearson sued Custom Cleaners for the loss of his pants, alleging claims of common law fraud and that they violated the CPPA by displaying signs that read “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, “All Work Done on Premises” and “Same Day Service”. The amount Mr. Pearson was seeking for relief was $67 million dollars, since that is what it would take for the Chungs to satisfy his claim (Pearson 2). It was Mr. Pearson’s belief, that there is an unconditional warranty that Custom Cleaners now must provide since they have the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign hanging in there store. (Pearson 4). In the pretrial discovery, the court confirmed that all work was done on premises, and the judge granted summary judgment to the defendants on the portion of fraud. Mr. Pearson amended his lawsuit and stated that he is “not suing for lost pants”, but only regarding the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign. (Pearson 4). Mr. Pearson insists that the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign is unconditional and limitless (Pearson 7). In addition, the claim tickets that are printed have limitations on the back which further limit the unlimited guarantee that is provided by the signs hanging in the store, which is a violation of the FTC regulations regarding “Satisfaction Guaranteed” (Pearson 20). The court, however, ruled that the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” means how a
Intentional Torts are defined as “voluntary acts that harm a protected interest” (McAdams, 2015, p. 279). The voluntary act must be found to be an intended act, done on purpose, even though the harm done by the act may not have been intended; however, the victim or plaintiff does not need to prove that the harm done was intended (p.279). In this particular case, was there an intentional act done by the airlines or pilot, which in turn caused injury to the plaintiff?
There are three elements that must be present for an act or omission to be negligent; (1) The defendant owed a duty of care towards the plaintiff; (2) The defendant breached the duty of care by an act or omission; (3) The plaintiff must suffer damage as a result - be it physical, emotional or financial. The court might decide that Freddy (the plaintiff) was owed a duty of care by Elvis (the defendant) if they find that what happened to Freddy was in the realm of reasonable forseeability - any harm that could be caused to a 'neighbour' by Elvis' actions that he could reasonably have expected to happen. The 'neighbour principle' was established in the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932).
There is a need that each school, its administrators and teachers should know the law of torts. In order to create a "culture of safety" principals should manage the risk of negligence to the faculty and students. As Burgett and Schwartz state, “being a teacher, administrator, board member, school employee, parent, or even a student is tricky business these days” (p.9). Therefore, each decision or actions’ steps should be made based upon ethical and legal principles. The particular high school puts an emphasis on health and safety issues. The school, the buildings, and the classroom are certainly the most critical areas of an educational institution where safety and health take place but also behavior and attitude reflect the importance of the serious business of learning. Therefore, the following three legal issues: unsupervised students, hallways, and field trips demand some improvements, accommodations or extra care to maintain the safety and healthy environment for students and employees.
o Defamation – An intentional tort. The reputation of the victim is damaged publicly by untrue statements made by the tort-feezer.
ASSAULT, BATTERY AND FALSE IMPRISONMENT ARE EXAMPLES OF ____ TORTS THAT INVOLVE INTERFERENCE WITH A PERSON'S BODY.
done with the unlawful purpose to cause such damage and loss, without right or justifiable cause on the part of the defendants (which constitutes malice); and
An intentional tort case is proved by the plaintiff showing that the defendant intentionally injured him/her (1). In a negligence case, the plaintiff shows that the defendant did not act carefully as the law requires and therefore should be liable for any damages to the plaintiff (1). The strict liability cases occur when a plaintiff suffers damages even though the defendant acted carefully and with no intent of harm being done to them (1).
Tort reform is very controversial issue. From the plaintiff’s perspective, tort reforms seems to take liability away from places such as insurance companies and hospitals which could at times leave the plaintiff without defense. From the defendant’s perspective, tort reform provides a defense from extremely large punitive damage awards. There seems to be no median between the two. Neither side will be satisfied. With the help of affiliations such as the American Tort Reform Association and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, many businesses and corporations are working to change the current tort system to stop these high cash awards.
Art and Bill were leaving work one afternoon when they were approached by Charlie, who was
Who is at fault? How much should I get? How long do I have to cerebrate about it? These are the three sizable questions when it comes to tort reform. This is one of the sultriest legal topics bypassing the country because not only does it affect the victim, it withal effects the incriminated and the rest of the taxpayers. First, if there is no tort reform the United States will perpetuate on its lawsuit blissful path causing insurance rates and costs to perpetuate to skyrocket. On the other hand, if there is an inordinate amount of reform, victims will be left behind and their rights lost. Lastly, I would relish to do more research on what precisely needs to be transmuted to make the legislation fair for all parties involved. In Conclusion,
The action is an intentional tort. This means doing a civil wrong and validating a legal duty to another party.
An intentional tort is a person deliberately causing harm or loss to another person. Examples are trespassing, causing a nuisance and defaming are intentional torts.
Another argument against Tort reform is that according to the Los Angeles Times, although many medical malpractice lawsuits are deemed frivolous, defensive medicine only accounts for a very small percentage of overall health care spending. This argument is supported by this article :
Torts of negligence are breaches of duty that results to injury to another person to whom the duty breached is owed. Like all other torts, the requirements for this are duty, breach of duty by the defendant, causation and injury(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). However, this form of tort differs from intentional tort as regards the manner the duty is breached. In torts of negligence, duties are breached by negligence and not by intent. Negligence is conduct that falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm(Stuhmcke and Corporation.E 2001). The standard measure of negligence is the universal reasonable person standard. The assumption in this case is that a reasonable
Presented are four separate cases that have been argued and settled in a court of law. Each of these cases represent a different kind of tort, a tort is a civil wrong or wrongful act, which can be either intentional or accidental, from which injury occurs to another (Hill & Hill n.d.). The torts are as listed, intentional, criminal, negligence, and liability as presented in the four researched cases.