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Benjamin Mkapa High School

BUSINESS TORTS

Business Torts are civil wrongs that are committed by or against an organization. They

frequently involve harm done to the organizations intangible assets, such as its business

relationships with clients or its intellectual property.

Business torts are not committed against persons or property. Rather it is harm done to

the organization’s intangible assets such as its business relationships with clients or its

intellectual property. It can be brought for a wrong doing in a business relationship that is

not a breach of contract. Business torts are also called Economic torts and they normally

provide the common law rules on liability which arise out of business transactions such as

interference with economic or business relationships and are likely to involve pure

economic loss.

Essential elements of torts

a) There must be unlawful act/omission on a part of wrong doer

b) Such act/omission should result into violation of legal rights of aggrieved person i.e

illegal damage to plaintiff

c) The unlawful act must be in a nature to give rise to a legal remedy in form of action

for damage.

Principal types of Business Torts

Conspiracy

A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a

third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective. Such an

agreement may be made orally or in writing or implied by the conduct of the parties. A

conspiracy may also refer to a group of people who make an agreement to form a

partnership in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member

and engage in planning or agreeing to commit some act. A conspiracy may exist whether

legal means are used to accomplish illegal results or illegal means are used to accomplish

something legal.

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Misrepresentation (sociology)

This is a concept in contract law referring to a false statement of fact made by one party

to another party which has the effect of inducing that party into the contract. For

example, under certain circumstances false statements or promises made by a seller of

goods regarding the quality or nature of the product that the seller has may constitute

misrepresentation. A finding of misrepresentation allows for remedy of rescission and

sometimes damages depending on the type of misrepresentation.

Negligence (disambiguation)

Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would

exercise in like circumstance. The area of Tort law known as negligence involves harm

caused by carelessness not intentional harm. According to Jay M.Feinman of the Rutgers

University School of Law, the core idea of negligence is that people should exercise

reasonable care when they act by taking account of the potential harm that they might

foreseeable cause harm to other people. Through civil litigation, if an injured person

proves that another person acted negligently to cause their injury, they can recover

damages to compensate for their harm.

Auto accidents (Traffic collision)

It occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris or

other stationary obstruction such as a tree or utility pole. Traffic collisions may result in

injury, death, vehicle damage and property damage. A number of factors contribute to the

risk of collision, including vehicle design, speed of operation, road design, road

environment, driver skill and/or impairment and driver behavior. Worldwide, motor vehicle

collisions lead to death and disability as well as financial costs to both society and the

individual involved.

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False imprisonment

This is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False

imprisonment is a common – law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as

governmental detention. When it comes to public police, the proving of false imprisonment

is sufficient to obtain a writ of habeas corpus.

Defamation

Defamation is also called calumny, vilification or traducement which is the communication

of false statement that harms the reputation of an individual business, product, group,

government, religion or nation. Most jurisdictions allow legal action to deter various kinds

of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism. Under common law, to constitute

defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the

person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken

defamation called slander and defamation in other media such as printed words or images

called libel.

Product liability

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers,

retailers and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the

injuries those products cause. Product liability as an area of law is traditionally limited to

products in the form of tangible personal property.

Copyright infringement

This is the use of works under copyright infringing the copyright holder’s exclusive rights

such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the copyrighted work or to

make derivative works without permission from the copyright holder which is typically a

publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work’s creator. Copyright

infringement is often associated with the terms piracy (the practice of labeling the

infringement of exclusive rights in creative works) and theft (instance where a person

exercises one of the copyright holder without authorization) .

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Trespass

Unlawful entry. It is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups namely,

a) Trespass to the person

Through the evolution of the common law in various jurisdictions and the

codification of common law torts, most jurisdictions now broadly recognize three

trespasses to the person; assault, which is any act of such a nature as to excite

an apprehension of battery. Battery, any intentional and unpermitted contact

with the plaintiff’s person or anything attached to it and practically identified

with it. Unlawful obstruction i.e. deprivation of freedom from restraint of

movement.

b) Trespass to chattels

Also known as trespass to goods or trespass to personal property is defined as an

intentional interference with the possession of personal property i.e. proximately

causing injury.

c) Trespass to land

This is today the tort most commonly associated with the term trespass and it

takes the form of wrongful interference with one’s possessory rights in real

property.

Interference

Tortuous interference of business torts can be broken down into two categories;

interference with business relationships and interference with contract rights. Business

relationship interference occurs when a meddling third party intentionally prevents a

company from establishing a business relationship. Interference with contract rights

generally takes place when a meddling third party convinces a company to breach its

contract with another company. Again it can happen if a meddling party prevents a company

from fulfilling its contractual obligations to another company.

Occupier’s liability (in English Law)

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This is a field of tort law codified in statute which concerns the duty of care that those

who visit or trespass. It deals with liability that may arise from accidents caused by the

defective or dangerous condition of the premises.

Occupier is the degree of occupational control. The more control one has over certain

premises, the more likely he is to be considered occupier for the purposes of the two

occupiers.

Deceit

The action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing, distortion or misrepresenting

the truth for the purpose of misleading, duplicity, fraud or cheating. It is either the

practices designed to mislead or to the qualities in a person that prompt such behavior. Eg.

Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again

Vicarious Liability

The Tort doctrine that imposes responsibility upon one person for the failure of another

with whom the person has a special relationship e.g. Parent and Child, Employer and

Employee or Owner of vehicle and Driver to exercise such care as reasonably prudent

person would use under similar circumstance. It is a legal doctrine that assigns liability for

an injury to a person who did not cause the injury to a person who did act negligently.

Limitation of actions

This is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an

event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated. In civil law systems,

similar provisions are typically part of the civil code or criminal code and are often known

collectively as period of prescription. The purpose and effect of statutes of limitation is

to protect defendants.

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