Lecture 1 - Introduction to Torts

• Tort


  A wrong or an infringement of someone else's legal right
• Torts


  Civil obligations non-voluntarily imposed on a particular person by the law
• Many torts developed prior to widespread statute law regulating everyday activities
• Comparison of Torts with crimes and contracts

  • Torts
  • Crimes
  • Contracts
• General characteristics of Torts, crimes, and contracts

  • Civil wrong, origins common law, precedent based
  • Criminal, 'wrong or offence'. Designated by legislation and codified
  • Based on mutual agreements
• Court proceedings for Torts, crimes, and contracts

  • Action by person suffering damage or loss: sues
  • Action brought by prosecution, usually Crown, government department or local authority
  • Action by party to contract claiming other party breached
• Remedies/sanctions for Torts, crimes, and contracts

  • Mainly compensation, also injunctions
  • Punishment based, e.g. fines, imprisonment, confiscation
  • Mainly compensation, equitable remedies, statutory relief and damages
• Duty in Torts, crimes, and contracts

  • Owed to persons generally
  • To the state itself and the public in general
  • To the other party to contract (fixed by agreement)
• Purpose of Torts is to compensate someone who has been wronged by an award of money (damages)
• Torts serve a social purpose of encouraging people to take care
• Torts aid in the distribution of risks
• Every tort has different elements which a person claiming loss needs to prove
• Some torts require proof of intention but not all torts do
• Generally individuals are liable for direct consequences of actions, but only if the consequences are foreseeable and not too remote
• Torts are classified according to the nature of the right infringed
• Examples of Torts which infringe on personal rights

  • Defamation
• Elements of Defamation


  • Publication of a false statement about someone which damages their reputation in the eyes of right-thinking people
• Defences to Defamation


  • Truth
  • Absolute privilege – e.g. statements made in Parliamentary Debates
  • Qualified privilege - where the person communicating the statement has a legal, moral or social duty to make it and the recipient has a corresponding interest in receiving it
• Privacy Law in New Zealand: the Tort of breach of privacy
• Remedy in tort when highly offensive publicity is given to private facts or information
• Conditions for a remedy in tort for breach of privacy
• Details about the tort of Nuisance
• Definition of a tort

  It is a civil wrong that causes harm, whether intentionally or through negligence, to another individual
• Torts concerned with rights to land
• Nuisance is the wrongful interference with an owner’s use and enjoyment of his or her land
• Rylands v Fletcher: '"the person who for his own purpose brings on his lands and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief, if it escapes, must keep it in at his peril, and if he does not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape"'
• Passing off is when someone deliberately or intentionally passes their goods off as those manufactured by/associated with another party
• Elements of the tort Passing Off

  • Good will
  • Misrepresentation
  • Damage
• Example of Passing Off


  • Caroline manufactures extremely high quality artisanal chocolate at a premium price
  • She sells her chocolate in purple packaging with her initial “C” prominently displayed
  • Would Cadbury Chocolate succeed in showing that this is “passing off”
  • Is there good will
  • Misrepresentation
  • Damage
• Vicarious Liability in tort requires a relationship between the defendant and the wrongdoer, such as the wrongdoer being an employee of the defendant
• Limiting Liability in Tort can be done through Statutory Authority or by contract
• The Limitation Act 2010 provides that legal action must be commenced within 6 years from when the tort was committed