Subject outline

Torts

10 core rule statements and a 892-line detailed rule bank, organized the way the California Bar tests them.

• Battery

  Battery is an intentional act causing harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff’s person.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Intent to cause contact or apprehension, or substantial certainty.
  2. 2Harmful or offensive contact.
  3. 3Contact with plaintiff’s body or something closely connected.
  4. 4Actual and proximate causation.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Transferred intent applies among traditional intentional torts.
  • •Consent and privileges may defeat liability.
  • •Nominal damages are available without physical injury.

• Assault

  Assault is an intentional act causing reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Intent.
  2. 2Plaintiff’s awareness and reasonable apprehension.
  3. 3Imminent threatened contact.
  4. 4Apparent present ability.
  5. 5Causation.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Words alone ordinarily are insufficient but context may make them enough or negate threat.
  • •Plaintiff need not experience fear.

• False Imprisonment

  False imprisonment is intentional confinement of a person to a bounded area without legal authority, where the person is aware of or harmed by confinement.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Intent.
  2. 2Confinement by barriers, force, threats, duress, or invalid legal authority.
  3. 3Bounded area with no reasonable known escape.
  4. 4Awareness or injury.
  5. 5Causation.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Moral pressure alone is insufficient.
  • •Shopkeeper privilege permits reasonable detention on reasonable suspicion for a reasonable investigation.

• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

  IIED requires extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causing severe emotional distress.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Extreme and outrageous conduct.
  2. 2Intent or recklessness.
  3. 3Actual causation.
  4. 4Severe distress.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Common-carrier, authority, vulnerability, repeated conduct, and abuse-of-power facts can heighten outrageousness.
  • •Bystander recovery has presence, close-relationship, and knowledge requirements.

  California distinction

  • California recognizes IIED under similar elements and requires conduct exceeding all bounds tolerated in a civilized community.

• Negligence

  Negligence requires duty, breach, actual and proximate causation, and damages.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Duty to conform to applicable standard of care.
  2. 2Breach.
  3. 3But-for or substantial-factor actual cause.
  4. 4Proximate cause within foreseeable scope of risk.
  5. 5Actual damages.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •No general duty to rescue absent relationship, creation of peril, undertaking, or statute.
  • •Negligence per se may establish duty and breach when statute protects this class and harm.

• Premises Liability

  Possessors of land owe entrants reasonable care under modern law, with traditional categories informing foreseeability and breach.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Defendant possessed or controlled premises.
  2. 2Dangerous condition or activity.
  3. 3Actual or constructive notice where required.
  4. 4Failure to inspect, warn, repair, or protect reasonably.
  5. 5Causation and damages.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Known or obvious danger may reduce duty or establish comparative fault but does not always eliminate duty.
  • •Trespassers receive limited duties, with child-trespasser and known-trespasser doctrines.

  California distinction

  • California generally applies ordinary reasonable care under Rowland factors rather than rigid invitee-licensee categories.

• Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

  NIED is negligence causing serious emotional distress under direct-victim or bystander principles; it is not an independent tort.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Negligence duty and breach.
  2. 2Causation.
  3. 3Serious emotional distress.
  4. 4Direct-victim duty or qualifying bystander relationship and perception.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Federal/common-law jurisdictions vary on physical impact and zone-of-danger requirements.

  California distinction

  • California bystander recovery generally requires close relation, presence and contemporaneous awareness of the injury-producing event, and serious distress beyond that of a disinterested witness.

• Strict Products Liability

  A commercial supplier is strictly liable for injury caused by a defective product reaching the user without substantial change.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Commercial supplier in distribution chain.
  2. 2Manufacturing, design, or warning defect.
  3. 3Defect existed when product left defendant.
  4. 4Actual and proximate causation.
  5. 5Personal injury or property damage.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Economic loss alone generally belongs in contract/warranty.
  • •Misuse and comparative fault may reduce or defeat recovery depending on foreseeability.

  California distinction

  • California design defect may be shown by consumer expectations or risk-benefit analysis; under risk-benefit, once causation is shown the defendant may bear the burden of proving benefits outweigh risks.

• Defamation

  Defamation requires a defamatory false statement of fact about plaintiff, publication, fault, and damages or actionability without special loss.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Defamatory factual assertion.
  2. 2Of and concerning plaintiff.
  3. 3Publication to a third person.
  4. 4Falsity where constitutionally required.
  5. 5Required fault.
  6. 6Damages, defamation per se, or presumed-damages basis.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Truth, absolute privilege, qualified privilege, consent, and opinion not implying false facts are defenses.
  • •Public officials/figures must prove actual malice for matters within the constitutional rule.

  California distinction

  • California Civil Code recognizes libel and slander and statutory privileges, including broad litigation privilege for qualifying communications.

• Privacy Torts

  Privacy claims include intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light, and appropriation/right of publicity.

  Elements / Factors

  1. 1Select the correct privacy interest.
  2. 2Highly offensive or unauthorized conduct.
  3. 3Publicity where required.
  4. 4Fault and causation.
  5. 5Resulting harm.

  Exceptions / Limitations

  • •Newsworthiness, consent, privilege, public records, and First Amendment interests may defeat claims.

  California distinction

  • California constitutionally protects privacy and recognizes statutory and common-law claims; a serious invasion and balancing of competing interests may be required for constitutional privacy.