Deck 3: Tort Law

Question 1

Tort law can affect a business's everyday activities.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

An intentional tort is when a business or person does not mean to cause harm to another.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Based on the principle of vicarious liability, a business owner will not be responsible for the torts committed by their employees.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A business owner may be responsible for the torts committed by their employees.

Question 5

A person who commits a tort is called a tortfeasor.

Question 6

A store security guard can detain a suspected shoplifter without fear of being sued for false imprisonment.

Question 7

Tort law does not affect a business's everyday activities.

Question 8

Battery is the harm caused by intentional contact.

Question 9

False imprisonment is when you unlawfully confine a person within a specified area.

Question 10

To be successful in a tort action, parties must also show they had a contractual relationship.

Question 11

Assault is the threat of immanent battery.

Question 12

A remedy is what the court awards a successful party in a lawsuit.

Question 13

Business exposure involves recognizing what is a wrong action and how to avoid that exposure.

Question 14

An unintentional tort is careless, inadvertent conduct on the part of the tortfeasor.

Question 15

Consent is not a defence to the tort of battery.

Question 16

Justin, a department store detective, saw Stephen slip some merchandise into his pocket. Justin followed him out of the store and stopped Stephen without touching him. Justin then quietly and politely asked Stephen to accompany him to the security office. Stephen agreed, but when his pockets were searched, nothing was found. Stephen can successfully sue the department store for false imprisonment.

Question 17

A tort is an action committed by an individual or business that causes injury or harm to another individual or business.

Question 18

The purpose of a remedy is to restore the injured party to the position they were in before the tort happened.

Question 19

An intentional tort is when a business or person deliberately causes harm to another.

Question 20

Tort law is law related to wrongdoing by a business or individual.

Question 21

Defamation is publishing a false statement that harms a person's reputation.

Question 22

Injurious falsehood is also called "slander of goods".

Question 23

Slander is the spoken form of defamation.

Question 24

When a person finds that the normal use and enjoyment of her land is being interfered with by fumes from her neighbour, she may be able to sue for private nuisance.

Question 25

Injury to one's reputation by a false statement, where the statement is not subject to privilege, is a tort.

Question 26

Trespass to land is when you enter onto, or place something onto, someone's land without their consent.

Question 27

A plaintiff would not be successful in a defamation lawsuit if the defendant had evidence to prove the statement was true.

Question 28

Defamatory statements made at a staff meeting are subject to absolute privilege.

Question 29

Negligence is a careless, inadvertent, action that causes injury or harm to another.

Question 30

Libel is the written form of defamation.

Question 31

To succeed in a lawsuit, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant's statement was false.

Question 32

Invasion of privacy is any unreasonable interference with someone's privacy or private information.

Question 33

If a defendant deliberately causes a breach in a contract between two parties, she or he may be sued for inducing breach of contract.

Question 34

Even when a business has an "Open" sign on their building, you are trespassing.

Question 35

If an employee steals confidential information from his employer and gives it to a business competitor, he may be sued for interference with economic relations.

Question 36

Trespass to chattels is causing damage to or interfering with a person's personal property.

Question 37

Libel is the spoken form of defamation.

Question 38

Passing off is when a defendant represents a plaintiffs' goods or services as if it were one's own products or services and thereby confuses the public.

Question 39

An "Open" sign is an implied invitation to enter onto someone's land and this does not constitute trespass.

Question 40

Slander is the written form of defamation.

Question 41

A duty of care is owed by one individual or business to another.

Question 42

In the example above, If Maya took legal action against Wes, Wes might plead voluntary assumption of risk as a defence.

Question 43

In the example above, Wes would be liable for the injury suffered by Maya when Maya slipped on the sidewalk in front of his shop, because he should have foreseen the possibility of injury to customers when he failed to remove the ice.

Question 44

In the example above, Wes is liable for the injury to Maya as a result of the car accident, because she would not have been travelling in the taxi if she had not injured her ankle at Wes's store.

Question 45

Which of the following is not an intentional tort?

A) Negligence
B) Trespass
C) Defamation
D) Assault

Question 46

A bouncer who uses force to remove a patron from a bar is liable for injuries to the patron if the amount of force, given the size, strength, and amount of resistance of the patron is:

A) extreme
B) excessive
C) predictable
D) reasonable

Question 47

When a court is trying to assess liability in a negligence action, it asks the question, "What would a reasonable person have done in these circumstances?"

Question 48

You won't be found negligent if you did not intend to do any harm.

Question 49

A person sued for assault and battery cannot claim which of the following as a defence?

A) The injured person agreed
B) The injured person consented
C) I was only defending myself
D) I didn't mean to do it

Question 50

In the example above, Maya was the author of her own misfortune because she should have foreseen the risk of injury by walking on an icy sidewalk.

Question 51

Jack and Diane decided to go into partnership for a manufacturing business. Jack raised $250,000 in start-up funds, in large part on the basis of documents that he forged. These documents purported to show that Jack and Diane owned their factory, when in fact they merely leased it. Jack spent all of the money on himself, and he now has no assets and has been jailed for 10 years. The creditors have contacted Diane and told her they will hold her liable for the loss.

A) Diane can argue assumption of risk in her defence of Jack's actions
B) Diane is not liable as she was not aware of Jack's actions
C) Diane is vicariously liable for Jack's action
D) Diane is both civilly and criminally liable for Jack's actions

Question 52

In the example above, Wes's actions were too remote to be the cause of the car accident in which Maya received serious injuries.

Question 53

Which of the following statements is correct with respect to tort law?

A) The main purpose of tort law is to deter crime
B) The main purpose of tort law is to punish a tortfeasor
C) An act must be intentional to be classified as a tort
D) A wrongful act can be both a crime and a tort

Question 54

When a court is trying to assess liability in a negligence action, it asks the question, "What would an average person have done in these circumstances?"

Question 55

The reasonable foreseeability test is used to determine whether a duty of care is owed.

Question 56

On a cold winter day, Maya slipped on the icy sidewalk at the entrance to Wes's shop. Maya injured her ankle as a result of the fall, and Wes hired a taxi to take Maya to the hospital to have her injured ankle examined. On the way to the hospital another vehicle collided with the taxi, and Maya was seriously injured. The court would likely consider what a reasonable person would have done or foreseen in determining the duty of care in this case.

Question 57

In the example above, the injured ankle was the proximate cause of Maya's more serious injury in the automobile accident because Wes had hired the taxi to send her to the hospital.

Question 58

Actions that fall below social acceptable standards, even when they are accidental, create liability for damages.

Question 59

Understanding when a legal issue has arisen helps you to know when to call a lawyer.

Question 60

Understanding the legal problems associated with your business can help avoid lawsuits.

Question 61

A business in the service industry, may find its employees becoming involved in altercations with customers in the course of their work. Such altercations:

A) May be inconvenient, but do not expose the business to liability
B) Can result in actions against the business on the basis of vicarious liability
C) Are extremely rare and so are not worthy of concern
D) Can lead to employees being held liable, but will not impact the business itself

Question 62

Which of the following is not an example of a business to business tort?

A) Conspiracy
B) Assault
C) Deceit
D) Intimidation

Question 63

Which one of the following statements about the case Donoghue v. Stevenson is false?

A) It says that a manufacturer is liable for injury caused by its product
B) It set the test to determine that a duty is owed to public
C) It says that a manufacturer is not liable for injury caused by its product
D) It set a precedent in the law of negligence

Question 64

Which of the following statements is the test used by the courts to determine if a duty of care was owed?

A) Would a reasonable person have acted like that in these circumstances
B) Would an average person have acted like that in these circumstances
C) Would an average person have foreseen that type of injury
D) Would a reasonable person have foreseen that type of injury

Question 65

Claire required a reference for a new job. She asked for a letter from her former employer, Alice. Alice wrote that Claire was honest, hard-working, intelligent, and a pleasant person who would do best in a job with considerable direction and supervision. Since Claire had applied for work in outside sales, she was turned down as the job needed an independent self-starter. Claire sued Alice for libel.

A) Alice can successfully raise the defence of fair comment
B) Alice can successfully raise the defence of absolute privilege
C) Alice can successfully raise the defence of qualified privilege
D) Alice can successfully raise the defence of freedom of speech

Question 66

Which of the following actions constitutes an assault?

A) The person in the vehicle next to you makes an offensive, threatening gesture to you
B) You bump into someone in the mall
C) A bystander is struck by a ball during a soccer game
D) Someone points a gun at another person who does not see the gun

Question 67

Which of the following statements with regard to the tort of negligence is false?

A) If a person is injured by a defective product that he himself did not purchase, he can sue the manufacturer for negligence
B) If the court finds contributory negligence, the defendant has no liability at all
C) If physical injury can be foreseen as the result of a person's negligence, this person will be liable for all the injury suffered although the person injured was unusually weak and infirm
D) A possible defence to the plaintiff's claim of negligence is that the plaintiff volunteered to take the risk

Question 68

Which of the following is not a defence to defamation?

A) The statement was false
B) The statement was absolute privilege
C) The statement was fair comment
D) The statement was qualified privilege

Question 69

A person could be liable for the tort of trespass for:

A) leaving packages in the wrong person's garage
B) accidentally knocking down the garage in a car that is out of control
C) leaving the wrong packages in the right person's garage
D) sleeping in the garage with the owner's permission

Question 70

As a form of risk management, you would know when to seek legal advice if you believed your business was about to be involved in a tort action. You know that prior to the meeting you have tried to minimize the risk. Which of the following is not a risk management tool?

A) Assessing the possible legal risks after an action has been commenced against you
B) Understanding what questions need to be asked of the lawyer
C) Anticipating and assessing possible legal risks involved in your business actions
D) Understanding the statutes involved in your business and jurisdiction

Question 71

With regard to the law of negligence, which of the following is false?

A) If the court finds that the plaintiff was 40 percent responsible and the defendant was 60 percent responsible for the loss suffered by the plaintiff, the plaintiff cannot recover more than 60 percent in damages from the defendant
B) If you hurt someone and are sued for negligence, a possible defence is that you didn't intend to hurt the person
C) To win his action in negligence, a plaintiff must prove, among other things, that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care
D) Some occupiers' liability acts set the standard of care owed by the occupier-namely, to take reasonable care that any person is reasonably safe

Question 72

The required elements of the tort of negligence do not include which of the following?

A) A contributory injury
B) A duty of care
C) A foreseeable injury
D) A breach of care

Question 73

Which of the following situations would not lead to a claim for negligence?

A) A customer leaves the store angrily when he was told that the item he wanted is not available
B) A business failed to put out a 'slippery when wet' sign after the floor was cleaned
C) A customer opened a soft drink can and ingested a toxic substance
D) A business left a pipe on the front of the sidewalk next to the restaurant floor