Exam 3: Introduction to Torts

You may be held liable in tort even though you were unaware of the fact that you owed an obligation to the plaintiff.

Sasha committed a tort against Katarina. Katarina wants to recover compensatory damages. Identify and briefly explain two doctrines that may limit the amount of money that she actually receives.

Eliza adores animals. Consequently, although she works in a small office, she brings a number of pets to work with her every day. She always brings Higgins, her poodle. Depending upon the circumstances, she often also brings Henry, her badger. For the most part, the animals cause no problems. Eliza is very conscientious and she takes every precaution to ensure that her animals do not cause any damage to the people and property around them. Unfortunately, as a result of a thunderstorm, both Henry and Higgins became unusually agitated one day at Eliza's office. And despite Eliza's best efforts to comfort and control them, they both bit Rex, a courier delivery person, as he entered Eliza's office. Eliza is very apologetic, but she does not believe that she should be liable for the losses that Rex suffered as a result of the attack. She did, after all, do her best to protect Rex from harm, both by training Henry and Higgins to behave gently toward strangers and by trying to calm them down during the storm. Based on the common law rules discussed in Chapter 3, would a court hold Eliza liable to Rex? If so, on what basis?

Miriam worked as a financial advisor with Acme Investments Inc. Over the period of several years, she stole millions of dollars from the company's clients. She did so by means of a complex and carefully planned series of fraudulent transfers. The company had no reason to believe that anything was wrong until the police arrived one day and explained the entire situation to Acme's president. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Gawain and Julie are neighbours. Gawain committed the tort of trespass to land by smashing a window in Julie's attic with a baseball bat. Julie could have quickly and easily fixed that damage by paying a home repair company $1000. Instead, she did nothing for eight months. At the end of that period, a thunderstorm caused rain to pour into Julie's attic through the broken window. Julie then paid a home repair company $4000 to fix both the broken window and the damage caused to the attic by the rain. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Alpha Corp owns a large plot of land called Blackacre. Except for one corner of that property, where Alpha's factory, offices, and warehouse are located, Blackacre is undeveloped. Omega Inc owns a piece of land that shares a common border with Blackacre. That border is located at the edge of an undeveloped section of Blackacre. Omega's property contains a number of buildings, including a manufacturing plant. That plant generates a considerable amount of waste. For the past ten months, Omega has greatly reduced its waste disposal expenses by simply dumping its waste onto Blackacre, rather than transporting the waste to a proper dumpsite. Alpha objected to the waste from the outset and initially tried to resolve the issue through friendly negotiations. It eventually became clear, however, that Omega would not voluntarily stop dumping waste onto Blackacre. Alpha consequently sued Omega for trespass to land. The court agreed with the claim and imposed liability upon Omega. The judge is now required to decide which remedy or remedies Alpha is entitled to receive. In that respect, Alpha has shown three things. (i) It will cost $75 000 to remove Omega's waste from Blackacre. (ii) Omega will dump waste onto Blackacre again in the future unless there is something to prevent it from doing so. And (iii) deliberate dumping of this sort has become a widespread problem because manufacturers, such as Omega, often believe that while the expense of properly disposing of waste material is much the same whether the work is done immediately or whether it is done only after a court has imposed liability, there is always a chance that the victim of a tort will not, for some reason, actually take the problem to court. Consequently, manufacturers often believe that there is little to lose, and potentially much to gain, by tortiously dumping waste on neighbouring properties. What remedies should be awarded against Omega on these facts?

During an argument, Sylvia flew into a rage and hit her friend Ian in the head with a baseball bat. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Christine entered into a contract with Vernon. She was required to pay $5000 and he was to provide advice regarding a business venture that she was pursuing. If Vernon had performed properly, Christine would have earned a profit of $20 000. As a result of Vernon's careless performance, however, Christine suffered a loss of $10 000 (in addition to the $5000 that she had paid to Vernon). Christine wants to sue Vernon in both contract and tort. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Which of the following torts fall within the category of strict liability torts?

Case Brief 3.2 discusses the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Non- Marine Underwriters, Lloyds of London v Scalera. As a result of that decision