A Short & Happy Guide to Torts

by Schechter, Roger E.

• ISBN13: 9780314277879
• ISBN10: 0314277870
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-11
• Publisher: West Academic

Summary

In this concise book Professor Schechter, an award-winning teacher and prominent national bar lecturer has balanced brevity and humor with a clear, crisp and thorough review of basic Torts doctrine. His comprehensive survey includes not only thorough coverage of core topics such as negligence and strict products liability, but provides an overview of the economic and dignitary torts, damages issues, and vicarious liability as well. As the series title promises, the author has kept it short, and the book will make students happy.

Author Biography

Roger E. Schechter began teaching law at George Washington University in the fall of 1980. He had to fight his way into the first year curriculum, but his Dean allowed him to begin teaching Torts in 1987. A few years later he began lecturing on Torts for the nation's leading bar review course, which he continues to do in numerous jurisdictions around the country. Most of his academic writing has been in the field of intellectual property law. Blessed with an assortment of extremely bright and hardworking co-authors, you can find his name on Casebooks and Hornbooks about Copyright, Trademarks and Patent Law. Even more blessed with intellectually lively and personally delightful Torts students each year, he continues to find the subject of Torts an absolute delight.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Intentional Torts
The Concept of Intent	p. 1
The Tort of Battery	p. 5
The Tort of Assault	p. 8
The Tort of False Imprisonment	p. 11
The Tort of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress	p. 14
The Tort of Trespass to Land	p. 18
Torts violating Interests in Personal Property	p. 22
Defenses to Intentional Torts
Consent	p. 25
Self-Defense, Defense of Others, and Defense of Property	p. 29
Public and Private Necessity	p. 32
More Obscure Defenses	p. 36
Negligence: An Introduction and the Concept of Duty
An Introduction to Negligence	p. 39
The Concept of a "Duty of Care"	p. 41
The Reasonably Prudent Person Standard of Care	p. 43
The Duty of Care of Children	p. 48
The Duty of Care of Professionals	p. 50
Duties of Possessors of Land (Premises Liability)	p. 55
Duties Based on Criminal Statutes	p. 63
The No-Duty-To-Rescue Rule	p. 67
Duties To Prevent Emotional Harm	p. 70
Duties to Guard Against Harm Caused By Third Parties	p. 74
Duties Owed to Unborn Children	p. 78
Duty of Care of the Government	p. 80
Family and Charitable Immunity	p. 83
Negligence: The Breach Element
The Two Aspects of Proving Breach of Duty	p. 85
The Relationship Between Duty and Breach	p. 86
Assessing Reasonableness By Considering Custom	p. 87
Assessing Reasonableness By Considering Costs and Benefits	p. 89
Assessing Reasonableness By Appealing To Jury Intuition	p. 92
Res Ipsa Loquitur	p. 94
Negligence: Factual Causation
The Basic Test-The "But-For" Rule	p. 99
The Special Situation of Merged Causes	p. 102
Unascertainable Causes	p. 104
The "Loss of Chance" Cases	p. 106
Negligence: Proximate Cause
An Introduction	p. 109
Really Silly Ideas For a Proximate Cause Test	p. 112
Foreseeability As the Measure of Defendant's Liability	p. 114
An Obsolete Rule and Its Rhetorical Legacy	p. 116
Why It Gets Fuzzy: Characterizing the Risk	p. 123
Negligence: Damages
Types of Damages Recoverable	p. 127
The "Eggshell Skull" Principle	p. 131
Allocation of Damages Between Multiple Defendants	p. 132
The Collateral Source Rule	p. 135
The Economic Loss Rule	p. 136
Defenses to Negligence Claims
Historical Evolution of Negligence Defenses	p. 139
The Mostly Obsolete Defense of Contributory Negligence	p. 140
The Mostly Obsolete Defense of Implied Assumption of the Risk	p. 142
Primary Assumption of the Risk	p. 144
Comparative Negligence	p. 146
Strict Liability For Defective Products
Introductory Observations	p. 151
Defendant Must Be a Merchant	p. 152
The Product Must Be Defective	p. 153
The Product Must Not Have Been Altered	p. 157
The User was Making a Foreseeable Use of the Product	p. 158
Defenses to Strict Products Liability Claims	p. 159
Other Strict Liability Claims
Abnormally Dangerous Activities	p. 161
Keeping Animals	p. 163
Dignitary, Economic and Other Torts
Defamation	p. 165
Defenses to Defamation Claims	p. 170
The Public Concern Defamation Scenario	p. 172
The Four Privacy Torts	p. 175
Nuisance	p. 179
Business Torts	p. 181
Vicarious Liability and Other Miscellaneous Topics
Employer Liability for Employee Torts	p. 187
Independent Contractors	p. 190
Other Potential Vicarious Liability Scenarios	p. 192
Wrongful Death and Survival Statutes	p. 193
Loss of Consortium	p. 195
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