Chapter 11 Terms and Definitions (some are paraphrased)
Agent – A person that is an employee of another (the principle) and is working to the profit of that person.
Assault – Results from an act that makes another reasonably apprehensive of immediate and harmful contact. Usually some action towards that contact must occur. Pg. 521.
Assumption of risk –
Battery – An un-permitted, un-privileged, intentional contact with another’s person is battery. It may be actually harmful or merely offensive. Pg. 521.
Contributory Negligence – Is a defense that exists when the injured persons proximately contributed to their injuries by their own negligence. Pg. 553.
Conversion – Any unauthorized act that deprives an owner of possession of his or her tangible personal property. Pg. 525.
Defamation – Results from the act of injuring another’s character, fame, or reputation by false and malicious statements. Pg. 530.
False arrest, imprisonment – The unlawful detention of persons, whereby they are deprived of their personal liberty against their will, and /o authority, is false imprisonment. Pg. 528.
Independent contractor – Those who are contracted to do work according to their own methods and are not subject to the control of employers except with respect to results. Pg. 561.
Invitee – a) public invitee is a person that comes into a public place like a business. B) a business invitee is a person that has come to a specific place to conduct specific business. Pg. 545.
Malicious prosecution – A civil suit for the tort of malicious prosecution can result from either a civil or criminal suit if the proceeding was instituted maliciously w/o probable cause, and w/ a decision favorable to the defendant. Pg. 528.
Negligence – The duty or obligation to conform to a certain standard of conduct for the protection of others against unreasonable risk or harm. If the person fails to conform to the required standard, and that failure causes damage or loss, the injured party has a cause of action for negligence. Negligence is the unintentional failure to live up to the community’s ideal of reasonable care. Pg. 537.
Principal – The person that an agent is working for and is producing profit for under the direction of the principle. Relates to cases of vicarious liability.
Proximate cause – Means the legal cause and consists of two elements 1) causation in fact. And 2) forseeability. Pg. 548.
Slander – Involved the spoken words that have been heard by someone other than the person slandered
Tort – A civil wrong other than a breach of contract for which courts provide a remedy in the form of an action for damages. Pg. 520.
Trespass – The unauthorized entry on the land of another as well as any offense or transgression that damages another’s personal property. Pg. 525.
Vicarious liability – Also called imputed negligence. When a person (the principle) is held responsible for the acts of another (the agent) that is employed by them. Pg. 561.
Wanton misconduct – A behavior that is reckless in nature when it is known that another person might be in the area and become damaged by said conduct. Pg. 545.