Classifying Torts: An Overview of Different Types of Legal Wrongs

A Comprehensive Guide to the Different Types of Torts

Overview

Torts are a type of civil wrong that occurs when one person or entity harms another person or entity in some way. Torts can be classified in several ways, including intentional torts, unintentional torts, and strict liability torts.

Intentional torts are torts that are committed on purpose. Examples of intentional torts include assault, battery, and false imprisonment.

Unintentional torts, also known as negligence torts, are torts that occur as a result of carelessness or a lack of proper caution. Examples of unintentional torts include car accidents caused by reckless driving and accidents resulting from a failure to maintain safe premises.

Tort Affecting person or Reputation: Intentional torts

(a) False Imprisonment and malicious prosecution

False imprisonment is the intentional confinement of a person without their consent and without legal justification. This can be done through physical barriers, such as locked doors or fences, or through the use of force. For example, if someone is physically restrained and not allowed to leave a room against their will, this could be considered false imprisonment. In the case of Bird v. Jones (1845), the defendant was found guilty of false imprisonment for locking the plaintiff in a room against his will.

Every restraint of the liberty of one person by another is in law imprisonment and, if imposed without lawful cause, false imprisonment which is both a criminal offence and an actionable tort. It is also a tort for any person, without reasonable and probable cause, maliciously to abuse the process of the Courts by wrongfully setting the law in motion against another person on a criminal charge, the remedy for which is an action for malicious prosecution. 

(b) Assault, battery and defamation 

Assault: Assault is the intentional threat of physical harm to another person. It does not require actual physical contact to be considered assault. For example, if someone raises their fist and threatens to punch another person, this could be considered assault.  In the case of Thomas v. Num (1853), the defendant was found guilty of assault for threatening to hit the plaintiff with a stick, even though he did not actually carry out the threat.

Battery: Battery is the intentional use of physical force against another person, resulting in bodily harm. For example, if someone punches another person, this could be considered battery. In the case of Cole v. Turner (1704), the defendant was found guilty of battery for punching the plaintiff in the face.

The offer of force or violence to the person of another without lawful excuse is an assault and, if force is actually applied, the assault is a battery; assault and battery are both criminal offences and actionable torts, both of which remedies may be pursued, except that, where summary proceedings are taken, they may have the effect of releasing the offender from all further proceedings, civil or criminal, in certain circumstances. 

Defamation: Defamation is a type of tort that involves making a false statement about another person that harms their reputation. Defamation can be further divided into libel (written defamation) and slander (spoken defamation). The wrongful publication of statements defamatory of the reputation of another person constitutes the tort of libel if the statement is made in a permanent form and the tort of slander if made in a transient form. In the context of action for Tort of defamation, means oblique subtle or indirect implication in words or expressions usually reckless, insolent and derogatory ensuing harm, injury and damage to the reputation, goodwill, and estimation of a person, goods or vocation. 2005  PLD  399

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Here are a few examples of defamation:

• A person posts on social media that a local business owner is a thief, even though they have no evidence to back up this claim. This could damage the business owner's reputation and result in a defamation lawsuit.
• A newspaper publishes an article claiming that a public figure engaged in illegal activities, even though the newspaper has no evidence to support this claim. This could damage the public figure's reputation and result in a defamation lawsuit.

Torts Affecting Property 

Torts against property (such as trespassing and vandalism).

(a) Private nuisance 

A nuisance which interferes with a person’s use or enjoyment of land or of some right connected with land, but which does not cause damage or inconvenience to the public, is a private nuisance and as such an actionable tort.

(b) Trespass:

Entering someone else's property without permission or legal right to do so. In the case of Brown v. Kendall (1827), the defendant was found guilty of trespassing for entering the plaintiff's property without permission and cutting down a tree.

Invasion of privacy: Invasion of privacy occurs when someone intrudes upon or violates the privacy of another person.

(c) Conversion:

The unauthorized use or appropriation of another person's property. In the case of Jones v. Smith (1871), the defendant was found guilty of conversion for selling the plaintiff's car without his permission.

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Torts Affecting Either Person or Property

(a) Negligence 

Negligence torts occur when the defendant fails to exercise reasonable care and that failure causes harm to the plaintiff. In order for a negligence claim to be successful, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant had a duty to take reasonable care, that the defendant breached that duty, and that the breach caused the plaintiff's injury. Where there is a duty to exercise care, reasonable care must be taken to avoid acts or omissions which can be reasonably foreseen to be likely to cause physical injury to persons or property; and, if the lack of care causes injury, the person who failed to exercise such care is liable in tort to an action for negligence.

Donoghue v Stevenson:

This case, which was decided by the House of Lords in 1932, established the principle of negligence in tort law. The case involved a woman who drank a bottle of ginger beer that contained a snail, which she claimed caused her to become ill. The court held that the manufacturer of the ginger beer had a duty of care to the consumer and was liable for the woman's injuries.

 Examples of negligence torts include:

Car accidents: If a driver is not paying attention to the road and causes an accident as a result, this could be considered an unintentional tort. The driver may be held liable for any injuries or property damage that occurred as a result of the accident.

Slip and fall accidents:

If a property owner fails to maintain safe premises and someone is injured as a result, this could be considered an unintentional tort. The property owner may be held liable for any injuries that occurred.

Medical malpractice:

Failing to provide proper medical care, resulting in injury to the patient

(b) Public nuisance 

A nuisance which inflicts damage, injury or inconvenience on the public, or a class of the public which comes within its sphere of operation, constitutes an indictable misdemeanour known as a common or public nuisance which may also, in many cases, be dealt with summarily; but, if a private individual can show that he has suffered some particular direct and substantial damage to person or property over and above that sustained by the community at large, he has a right of action in tort for that nuisance.

Examples of nuisance

Noise pollution: Making excessive noise that interferes with the use and enjoyment of someone's property

Pollution: Discharging harmful substances into the environment that affect the use and enjoyment of someone's property

(c) Deceit 

Where one person, fraudulently makes a material representation to another which is false and which induces that other person to alter his position in such a way that he suffers damage to property or physical injury to the person, the person suffering that damage may bring an action in tort for deceit against the person making the representation.

For Example:

Fraudulent misrepresentation: Making false statements with the intention of getting someone to rely on them to their detriment

Fraudulent concealment: Hiding material information with the intention of getting someone to enter into a transaction to their detriment. In the case of Smith v. Jones (1912), the defendant was found guilty of fraud for selling the plaintiff a faulty car while claiming that it was in good condition.

Torts Affecting Family Relations 

(a) Seduction, enticement and harbouring

It is a tort to deprive a person by a wrongful act of the services of his domestic servant or of a member of his household who renders him similar services. It is also a tort without justification to procure, entice or persuade a wife to violate her duty to reside and consort with her husband, and for this wrong the husband can recover damages. A corresponding remedy is available to a wife whose husband has been similarly enticed. It is, it seems, a further tort to harbour a wife, although the element of enticement is not present. There is, however, no corresponding tort actionable at the suit of a wife in respect of the harbouring of her husband. The actions of seduction and enticement are expressly excluded from those which survive in favour of or against deceased persons. 

Torts Affecting Economic Interests 

(a) Malicious inducement by unlawful means 

Where one person by means lawful in themselves induces a second person to commit an act lawful in itself whereby a third person suffers damage, the first commits no wrong actionable at the suit of the third, even if his sole motive in so inducing the second to harm to the third. 

Interference with Contractual Relations 

(a) Inducement to commit a breach of contract 

Where one person by means legal or illegal in themselves induces a second person to commit a breach of contract against a third person, whereby that third person suffers damage, the first commits a wrong actionable at the suit of the third unless such inducing is justifiable. 

(b) Intimidation, coercion, etc. 

Although, therefore, it is not an actionable wrong for an individual merely to induce a person not to serve or not to employ another when no breach of contract is thereby caused, yet. if the inducement is accompanied by illegal means, such as violence, intimidation, coercion, obstruction, molestation, fraud, or misrepresentation and damage results to a person intended to be harmed there is an actionable wrong at his suit. Threats to break a contract come within the category of unlawful acts in relation to intimidation. 

(c) Injurious falsehood 

It is an actionable wrong maliciously to make a false, though not defamatory, Statement respecting a person with the result that other persons thereby deceived are induced to act in a manner which causes loss to him. Maliciously means with some indirect or dishonest motive, and malice in this sense must be proved. Such a statement will not support an action if it was made in the belief, even though careless, that it was true, and without any indirect motive of hostility towards the person referred to.

Conspiracy 

The tort of conspiracy, whose historical origins lie in statutes passed during the reign of Edward-I to prevent persons combining to abuse legal processes, has been developed in its modern form in a series of decisions commencing in 1891 which are Concerned with combinations to interfere with the course of trade or business. Acts done in pursuance of a conspiracy having for its actual purpose the injury of a man in his trade or calling are an actionable wrong if damage is caused, but the limits of the in are not confined to interference with trade or business. If an unlawful act is committed by several persons acting in concert, and damage is caused, the prior agreement adds nothing to the tort, and has been said to merge init, for the parties will be joint tortfeasors; accordingly, it is necessary only to consider conspiracy as a separate tort where the act would not have been unlawful if done by one individual.

Strict liability

If anybody undertook an activity involving hazardous and risky exposure to human life, then he was liable under the Law of Tort s to compensate for the injury suffered by any other person irrespective of any negligence or carelessness on the part of the persons responsible for such undertaking. The basis of such liability was a foreseeable risk inherent in the very nature of such activity. Under the law, such liability was known as "strict liability" which differed from the liability arising on account of negligence or fault. Rule of "strict liability" laid down a principle of liability that if a person who brought on to his land and collected and kept there anything likely to do harm and such thing snapped and it caused damage to another, he was liable to compensate for the damage so caused. [2005  MLD 1556 KARACHI]

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Conclusion:

In conclusion, torts are legal wrongs that result in injury or harm to another person. There are several different types of torts, including negligence, strict liability torts, defamation, invasion of privacy, trespass, and product liability. Negligence occurs when someone fails to take reasonable care to prevent harm to others, and as a result, causes an injury. Intentional torts involve intentional conduct, such as assault, battery, and false imprisonment. Strict liability torts do not require the plaintiff to prove that the defendant was negligent, only that the defendant engaged in an activity that resulted in harm. Defamation occurs when someone makes a false statement that harms the reputation of another person. Invasion of privacy occurs when someone intrudes upon or violates the privacy of another person. Trespass occurs when someone enters another person's property without permission. Product liability occurs when a product is defective and causes injury to the user.