Torts: A Modern Approach

Table of Cases
Authors\' Note
Chapter 1 • Introduction
	A. History
	B. Fault as the Standard Basis for Liability
	C. Policies Underlying Tort Law
PART 1 • INTENTIONAL TORTS
	Chapter 2 • Intentional Harms to Persons
		A. Battery
			1. Act with Intent
			2. Intent to Cause Harmful or Offensive Contact
			3. Such Contact Results
		B. Assault
			1. Act with Intent to Cause an Imminent Apprehension of a Harmful or Offensive Contact
			2. Such Apprehension Results
		C. False Imprisonment
		D. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
		E. Defenses and Privileges
			1. Consent
			2. Self-Defense
			3. Defense of Others
			4. Shopkeeper\'s Privilege
	Chapter 3 • Intentional Harms to Property
		A. Conversion and Trespass to Chattels
			1. Conversion
			2. Trespass to Chattels
		B. Trespass to Land
		C. Defenses and Privileges
			1. Defense of Property
			2. Necessity
PART 2 • NEGLIGENCE
	Chapter 4 • Duty and Breach
		A. Duty (The Standard of Care)
		B. Breach of Duty
		C. Special Issues Involving Breach of Duty
			1. Sudden Emergencies
			2. Negligence Per Se
			3. Industry Custom
			4. Minors
			5. Other Special Characteristics of the Actor
			6. Establishing Breach: Circumstantial Evidence and Res Ipsa Loquitur
			7. Professional Negligence
	Chapter 5 • The Duty Element Revisited
		A. Special Relationships
			1. Landowner and Occupier
			2. Innkeeper and Guest
			3. Business Owner\'s Duty to Ill or Injured Patron
			4. Social Hosts
			5. Duty of Colleges and Universities to Students
			6. Duty to Warn
		B. Duty When Actor Has Created Risk of Physical Harm
			1. Duty to Act When Prior Conduct Is Dangerous
			2. Negligent Entrustment
		C. Voluntarily Assumed Duties
	Chapter 6 • Harm and Cause in Fact
		A. Harm
		B. Cause in Fact
			1. The Standard Test: The But-for Test
			2. Joint and Several Liability
			3. Alternate Tests
	Chapter 7 • Proximate Cause
		A. The Scope of the Risk Test
			1. The Test in General
			2. Scope of the Risk: Kinds of Harms Foreseeably Risked
			3. Scope of the Risk: Class of Persons Put at Foreseeable Risk
		B. Superseding Causes
		C. Special Policy-Based Proximate Cause Rules
			1. Legislative Rules
			2. Suicide
			3. The “Eggshell Plaintiff” Rule
			4. Rescuers, Emergency Responders, and Medical Providers
			5. Fires
	Chapter 8 • Defenses
		A. Contributory Negligence
		B. Comparative Fault
			1. In General
			2. Different Forms of Comparative Fault
			3. Other Issues Involved in the Comparative Fault Evaluation
		C. Assumption of Risk
			1. Express Assumption of Risk
			2. Implied Primary Assumption of Risk (No Duty/No Breach of Duty)
			3. Implied Secondary Assumption of Risk (Comparative Fault)
	Chapter 9 • Immunities and Tort Actions Involving Government Actors
		A. Charitable and Intrafamily Immunity
			1. Charitable Immunity
			2. Intrafamily Immunity
		B. Governmental Immunity
			1. Sovereign Immunity
			2. Governmental Immunity Statutes
			3. Discretionary Function Immunity
		C. The Public Duty Doctrine
		D. Other Tort Claims Involving Government Actors
			1. Federal Tort Claims Act
			2. Constitutional Tort Actions
	Chapter 10 • Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress and Loss of Consortium
		A. Historical Treatment of NIED Claims
		B. NIED: Direct Victim Cases
			1. The Impact Rule
			2. The Physical Manifestation Rule
			3. The Zone of Danger of Rule
			4. Rules Based on Guaranties of Genuineness and Foreseeability
		C. NIED: Harm to Third Persons Cases
		D. Loss of Consortium
PART 3 • STRICT LIABILITY
	Chapter 11 • Vicarious Liability
		A. Vicarious Liability in General
		B. Employee Status
		C. Scope of Employment
			1. Vicarious Liability Stemming from Negligent Conduct
			2. Vicarious Liability Stemming from Intentional Misconduct
		D. Nondelegable Duties
	Chapter 12 • Strict Liability for Harm Caused by Abnormally Dangerous Activities
		A. Strict Liability for Harm Caused by Abnormally Dangerous Activities
			1. Early Evolution of the Doctrine: Rylands v. Fletcher
			2. Abnormally Dangerous Activities
		B. Strict Liability for Harm Caused by Animals
		C. Causation
		D. Defenses
	Chapter 13 • Nuisance
	Chapter 14 • Products Liability
		A. Historical Development
			1. The Privity Requirement
			2. The Fall of Privity
			3. The Role of Warranties
			4. Toward Modern Products Liability Law
			5. Modern Products Liability Law
		B. Manufacturing Defects
		C. Design Defects
			1. The Risk-Utility Test in General
			2. Application of the Risk-Utility Test
		D. Information (Warning) Defects
			1. In General
			2. Special Issues Involving Causation
			3. Special Issues Involving Duty
		E. Defenses
			1. Comparative Fault
			2. Substantial Modification of the Product
			3. Compliance with Regulations
			4. Preemption
		F. Final Thoughts on Products Liability
PART 4 • DIGNITARY TORTS
	Chapter 15 • Defamation
		A. Defamation: The Prima Facie Case
			1. Publication
			2. Defamatory Statements
			3. Of and Concerning the Plaintiff
			4. Damages
			5. The Role of Truth
			6. Actionable and Non-Actionable Statements
		B. Defamation: Constitutional Constraints
			1. Public Officials and Public Figures
			2. Private Figures and Matters of Public Concern or Controversy
			3. Private Figures and Matters of Private Concern
			4. The Actual Malice Standard
			5. Classifying Plaintiffs as Public Figures or Private Figures
		C. Defamation: Privileges and Defenses
			1. Absolute Privileges
			2. Qualified Privileges
			3. Media Privileges
	Chapter 16 • Invasion of Privacy
		A. Intrusion Upon the Seclusion of Another
			1. Intentional Intrusion upon the Solitude or Seclusion of Another
			2. Highly Offensive to a Reasonable Person
			3. Interplay between the Elements
		B. Publicity Given to Private Life
		C. False Light
		D. Misappropriation of the Right of Publicity
PART 5 • ECONOMIC TORTS
	Chapter 17 • Misrepresentation
		A. Fraudulent Misrepresentation
			1. The Prima Facie Case
			2. Nondisclosure, Omission, and Concealment as Misrepresentation of Fact
		B. Negligent Misrepresentation
			1. The Privity Test
			2. The Section 552 Test
	Chapter 18 • Interference with Contractual Relations
		A. The Prima Facie Tort Approach
			1. The Prima Facie Case
			2. Privileges and Justifications
		B. The Improper Purpose or Improper Means Test
		C. Decoupling the Interference Torts
			1. Interference with Contract versus Interference with Prospective Contractual Relations
			2. Interference with Contract versus Interference with Contract Terminable at Will
PART 6 • DAMAGES
	Chapter 19 • Damages
		A. Compensatory Damages
			1. Pecuniary Damages
			2. Nonpecuniary Damages
		B. Punitive Damages
			1. In General
			2. Constitutional Limitations
		C. Damage Caps and Tort Reform
			1. Damage Caps and Tort Reform in General
			2. The Pro-Tort Reform Arguments
			3. The Anti-Tort Reform Arguments
		D. Wrongful Death Statutes
		E. Other Approaches to Recovery
			1. Workers\' Compensation
			2. Victim Compensation Funds
Index