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    Buss 211 - Chapter 9

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    Buss 211 - Chapter 9

    Uploaded by

    Mya M
    9 views34 pages

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    BUSS 211- CHAPTER 9

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    Buss 211 - Chapter 9

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    Mya M

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    of 34
    Clty Business Torts Cimizal wrongs reauie gity parts to ay a debt o society through 8 fn, imprisonment, and/or community service. However, criminal wrongs also have victims who have suffered financial losses, injuries, and, sometimes, per manent disabilities, Those who are harmed by the conduct of others are the vic- tims of torts, Torts are civil wrongs that provide remedies. This chapter answers these questions: What are the different types of torts? What must you prove to recover for these torts? What are the business and public policy issues in torts? uppare For up-to-dto lw and ethic news, goto rijerniings-oorn gis the lettuce you eat at Burger King. i van atta moro Thee Buncen Kove FUROVES UST rita ans a es opi Ga thigh ats dP Tec at on he ae ormoncan th Pe ee enter Caco a es oboe (Consider we 91 ag rafter buying lunch, Chaney sat down near that the seating area in its café, Should Chaney be able to > tron. When Chaney rose from his chait 20 minutes recover? a Pe a hectare casainene oe What Ts a'Tort? Roots of Law and Commerce ‘orf comes from the Latin term fortus, which means “crooked, dubious, twisted.” A tort is some type of interference with someone or with someone's property that results in injury to persons or property. For example, using someone else’s land without permission is interference with that person’s property rights and is the tort of trespass. If you held a concert on someone else’s land and the concert crowds destroyed the property's vegetation or left litter that had to be removed, then you committed the tort of trespass. Tort law provides the basis for recovering the costs of restoring the property damaged by the concertgoers. e412 Tort Versus Crime tort is a private wrong. When a tort is committed, the party who was injured is entitled to collect compensation for damages from the wrongdoer for the private wrong, A crime, on the other hand, is a public wrong and requires the wrongdoer to pay a debt to society through a fine or by going to prison. For example, in the shooting cleath of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, a grand jury found that there was no crime committed by the officer. However, the family of Mr, Brown brought a civil suit against the city of Ferguson andl the officer for the shooting death. The criminal justice system found no crime was committed, but the civil justice system ean impose liability for the young man’s death. The case Was settled, 4b Types of Torts The three types of tort liability include intentional torts, negligence, and strict tort liability. Intentional torts are those that involve deliberate actions. For example, & battery, or hitting another person, is an intentional tort. Hitting someone in the nose liberately is the tort of battery. Suppose that you stretch your arms in a crowd and you hit a man in the nose and hurt him. You have not committed the tort of, tery, but you may have committed the tort of negligence. You were carelessly 296 Part 2 Business: Its Regulatory Environment swinging your arms in a crowd of people, Such careless conduct, ot actions dong without thinking through the consequences, is the tort of negligence. You are sti, responsible for damages to the nose because when you fail fo act cautiously any thoughtfully, you are negligent. Strict tort liability does not turn on state of ming, or knowledge of possible harm. For example, when contractors use dynamite tg raze a building, they have strict liability because the incendiary devices are 55 risky and consequences could be so great that we hold them responsible regardless of the precautions they take. Product liability, discussed in Chapter 13, isa form, of strict liability. You will see that a company can be held liable for injuries when a customer has misused its product because even the failure to provide enough ‘warnings results in strict liability ‘82 The Intentional Torts Defamation Defamation is an untrue statement made by one party to another about a third party. It consists of either slander or libel; siander is oral or spoken defamation, and libel is written (or, in some cases, broadcast) defamation, The elements of def- amation are the following: 1. Astatement about a person’s reputation, honesty, or integrity that is untrue 2, Publication 3, Astatement that is directed at a particular person 4, Damages 5. In some cases, proof of malice Publication Defamation requires that whatever is said or written be communicated to a third party. A contractor who untruthfully tells developers that one of his competitors uses workers who are undocumented aliens has met the publication element. So has a supplier who notifies other suppliers that a business is insolvent when it is not. The more folks who hear the statement, the greater will be the defamation damages. Internet messages and blog postings meet the publication requirement, They provide instantaneous and international communication, so damages can be substantial everriaw ‘Statement about a Particular Person ‘To qualify as defamation, the statement made must be about an individual or & small enough group that all in the group are affected, For example, the general statement “All accountants are frauds” is too broad to be defamatory. But the state- ment “All the Andersen audit partners who worked on the Enron accounts were dishonest” is specific enough to meet this requirement. Product disparagement is defamation of a product. For example, a Consumer Reports evaluation of a product that is not truthful about its qualities or abilities would be product disparagement. In Base Corporation v Consuniers Union of United States, Inc. 466 U.S. 485 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with whether prod~ uct disparagement of the Bose speaker system actually occurred when Consumer Reports described individual sounds from the speakers, such as those of violins, a8 lone pe =—- still poconsider

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