TORTS

- is a legal wrong, committed against a person or property

independent of a contract which renders the person who
commits it liable for damages in a civil action.
EXAMPLES OF TORTS ARE:
1. Assault and battery
assault – is the imminent threat of harmful or offensive bodily
act.
battery – in an intentional, unconsented touching of another
person.
False imprisonment or illegal detention
false imprisonment – means the unjustifiable detention of a
person without a legal warrant within boundaries fixed by the
defendant by an act or violation of duty intended to
result in such confinement.
• 3. Invasion of right to privacy and breach of
confidentiality
- the right to privacy is the right to be left alone, the right
to be free
from unwarranted publicity and exposure to public
view as well as
the right to live one’s life without having anyone’s
name, picture or
private affairs made public against one’s will.
4. defamation
- in general, character assassination be it written or
spoken.
- slander - is oral defamation of a person by speaking
unprivileged or false words by which his reputation is
damaged.
- libel
– is defamation by written words,
cartoons or such representations that
cause a person to be avoided, ridiculed or
held in contempt or tend to injure him in
his work.
• CRIMES, MISDEMEANORS, AND FELONIES
CRIME – is an act committed or omitted in violation of the law.
Criminal offenses are composed of two elements:
1. Criminal act
2. evil/criminal act
Conspiracy to commit a crime
- Exists when two or more persons agree to commit a
felony and decide to do it.
- persons who commit felonies are either:
1. Principals – those who take a direct part in the execution of
the act, who directly force or induce others to commit it, who
or cooperate in the commission of the offense by another act
without which it would not have been accomplished.
,
2. Accomplices – cooperate in the execution of the offense by
previous or simultaneous act.
3. Accessories – take part subsequent to its commission by
profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit from
the effects of the crime by concealing or destroying the body
of the crime, or the effects or instruments thereof, in order to
prevent its discovery or by harboring,
CRIMINAL ACTIONS
- deal with acts or offenses against public welfare. These vary
from minor offenses and mis demeanor to felonies.
- misdemeanour – is a general name for a criminal offense
which does not in law amount to felony.
- Felony – is a public offense for which a convicted person is
liable to be sentenced to death or to be imprisoned in a
penitentiary or prison.
concealing, or assisting in the
escape of the principal of the
crime, provided the accessories
act with abuse of their public
functions or are known to be
habitually guilty of some other
crimes.
Felony – is committed with deceit and
fault.
deceit – exists when the act is
performed with deliberate intent
fault – when the wrongful acts
result from imprudence, negligence,
or lack of skill or foresight
• .
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE
- classified into reckless imprudence and simple
imprudence.
- reckless imprudence – when a person does an act or
fails to do it voluntarily but without malice, from
which material damage results immediately.
- simple imprudence – means
that the person or nurse did
not use precaution and the
damage was not immediate or
the impending danger was not
evident or manifest.
CRIMINAL INTENT
- is the state of mind of a person at the time the
criminal act is committed, that is, he/she knows that
an act is not lawful and still decided to do it anyway.
• CLASSES OF FELONIES:
- according to the degree of the acts of execution ( which produces the
felony ) :
1. Consummated – when all the elements necessary for its execution
and accomplishment are present.
2. Frustrated – when the offender performs all the acts or execution
which will produce the felony as a consequence but which
nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes
independent of the will of the perpetrator.
 Attempted – when the offender
3.

commences the commission of the

same directly by overt acts, and
does not perform all the acts
 or execution which shall produce the felony , by reason of some
cause or accident other than his own spontaneous desistance.
.
Felonies classified according to the degree of punishment:
1. Grave felonies – are those to which the law attaches the capital
punishment or penalties which in any of their periods are afflictive
( imprisonment ranging from six years and one day to life imprisonment and
a fine.
2. Less grave felonies – are those which the law punishes with penalties
which in their maximum period are correctional ( imprisonment
ranging from one month and one day to six years , or a fine.
3. Light felonies – are those infractions of law for the commission of
which the penalty of aresto menor ( imprisonment for one day
to thirty days or a fine.
3. Circumstances affecting criminal liability :
1.Justifying Circumstances
1.1when he/she acts in defense of his/her person or rights
provided
that:
a. there is an unlawful aggression on the part of the offended
party
b. there is reasonable necessity for the means employed
by the person defending himself/herself to prevent such
aggression;
c. there is lack of sufficient provocation on the part of
the person defending himself.
.
1.2 when he/she acts in defense of the person or the rights of his/
her spouse, ascendants, descendants, or legitimate or natural
or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives by affinity in the
same degrees and those by consanguinity within the fourth
civil degree provided that the first and second requisites
prescribed in the next preceding circumstance are
present, and
further requisite , in the case of provocation was given
by the person attacked, that the one making defense
had no part
therein.
1.3 when he/she acts in defense of the person or rights of
a stranger provided, that the first and second requisites
mentioned in the first circumstance and that the person
defending is not induced
by revenge, resentment or other evil motives .
 1.4 when any person who, in order to avoid an evil or injury,
does
an act which causes damage to another provided that the
evil sought to be avoided actually exists, the injury feared is
greater than that done to avoid it and there is no other
practical and less harmful means to prevent it.
 1.5 when he/she acts in the fulfilment of a
duty or in lawful exercise of a right or
office.
2. Exempting Circumstances
a. an imbecile or an insane person,
unless the latter has acted during a lucid
interval;
b. a person under nine years of age;
c. a person over nine years of age and under fifteen unless he/she
acted with discernment;
d. any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care,
causes an injury which is merely an accident without fault or
intention of causing it;
e. any person who acts under the compulsion of an
irresistible
force;
f. any person who acts under the impulse of an
uncontrollable
fear of an equal or greater injury;
g. any person who fails to perform
an act required by law, when
prevented by some lawful or
insuperable cause.
3. Mitigating circumstances
a. circumstances which are otherwise justifying or exempting were it
not for the fact that all requisites necessary to justify the act or to exempt
the offender from criminal liability in the respective cases are not attendant.
b. when the offender has no intention to commit so grave a wrong as
the one committed;
c. when the offender is under eighteen years of age or over seventy
years old.
 d. when sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party
immediately precedes the act.
e. when the act is committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense
to the one committing the felony, his/her spouse, ascendants, descendants,
legitimate, natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relative by affinity within the
same degree.
f. when a person acts upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have
produced an obfuscation.
g. w or his hen the offender voluntarily surrenders himself to a

person in authority or his agents, or that he/she

voluntarily
confesses his/her guilt before the court prior to the
presentation
of the evidence for the prosecution
h. when the defender is deaf, dumb, blind or otherwise
suffering from some physical defect which thus
restricts his/her means of action, defense or
communication with his/her fellow beings.
i. whenthe offender is suffering from such illness as
would diminish the exercise of his/her willpower without
however, depriving him/her of consciousness of his/her
acts.
4. Aggravating Circumstances
- Some of the circumstances considered by law as aggravating the
guilt of the offender are the following:
a. When the offender takes advantage of his public position;
b. When the crime is committed in contempt of or with insult to
public authorities;
c. When the act is committed with insult or in disregard of the
respect of the offended party on account of his/her rank, age,
or sex or that it is committed in the dwelling of the offended party,
if the latter has not given provocation;
d. When the act is committed with abuse or confidence or
obvious ungratefulness;
e. When the crime is committed in a place of worship;
f. When the crime is committed on the occasion of a
conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic or other
calamity or misfortune;
g. When the crime is committed in consideration of a price ,
reward, or promise;
h. When the crime is committed by means of inundation, fire,
poison, explosion, standings of a vessel or intentional damage
thereto, derailment of a locomotive, or the use of any other
artifice involving great waste and ruin;
i. When the act is committed with evident premeditation or
after an unlawful entry;
j. When craft, fraud, or disguise is employed;
k. When the wrong done in the commission of the crime is
deliberately augmented by causing other wrongs not necessary
for its commission.
 5. Alternative Circumstances
- Relationship – when the offended party is the spouse, ascendant or descendant,
legitimate, natural or adopted brother or sister, or
Relative by affinity in the same degree of the offender.
- Intoxication – mitigating circumstance if when the offender is in
- State of intoxication, if not habitual. When habitual intoxication
or intentional, it is considered as aggravating.
- Illitiracy – is not in itself sufficient to be considered mitigating.
 LACK OF EDUCATION IS NOT MITIGATING IN :
1.Rape
2. Forcible abduction
3. Arson
4. Treason
5. In crimes against chastity like seduction and acts of lasciviousness
6. Those acts committed in a merciless or heinous manner.
 MURDER – is the unlawful killing of a human being with intent to kill.
HOMICIDE – is the killing of a human being by another.
ABORTION – in law, any person who, with the intention of prematurely
ending a pregnancy, wilfully and unlawfully does any ac to
cause the same is guilty of procuring abortion.
INFANTICIDE – killing of a child less than three days of age.
PARRICIDE – crime committed by one who kills his/her father, mother, or child whether
legitimate or illegitimate, or any of his/her ascendants or descendants or his/her spouse.
ROBBERY – the taking of personal property of another person from him
or in his presence constitutes robbery.
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES – R.A. 6425 or the dangerous drugs act
of 1972 covers the administration and regulation of the
manufacture, distribution and dispensing of controlled drugs .
• SIMULATION OF BIRTH, SUBSTITUTION OF ONE CHILD FOR ANOTHER, OR
ABANDONEMENT OF A LEGITIMATE CHILD
• - simulation of birth is a crime committed by one who enters in a birth certificate a birth that did not
occur.

• POINTS TO OBSERVE IN ORDER TO AVOID CRIMINAL LIABILITY:

• 1. Be very familiar with the Philippine Nursing Law.
• 2. Be aware of laws that affect nursing practice.
• 3. at the start of employment, get a copy of your job description, the agency’s rules, regulations and
policies.
• 4. Upgrade your skills and competence.
• 5. Accept only such responsibility that is within the scope of your employment and
your job description.
• 6. Do not delegate your responsibility to others.
• 7. Determine whether your subordinates are competent in the work
• you are assigning them.
• 8. Develop good interpersonal relationships with your co-workers,
• whether they be your supervisors, peers, or subordinates.
• 9. Consult your superiors for problems that may be too big for you to
handle.
• 10. Verify orders that are not clear o you or those that seem to be
erroneous.
• 11. the doctors should be informed about the patient’s conditions.
• 12. Keep in mind the value and necessity of keeping accurate and
adequate records.
• 13. Patients are entitled to an informed consent.
 WILLS
- Is a legal declaration of a person’s intentions upon
death.
- Is called a testamentary document because it takes
effect after the death of its maker.
• DECEDENT – a person whose property is transmitted through succession
whether or not he left a will.
• HEIR – a person called to succession either by the provision of a will or
by operation of law.
• TESTATE – a person who dies leaving a will.
• TESTATE SUCCESSION – heirs will inherit under a last will and
testament.
• INTESTATE SUCCESSION – without last will
Two types of Last Will and Testament
1.Properties
a. ordinary will
b. holographic will
2. Life/body – living will , advance directives.
- patient is still alive giving instructions.
 CONTRACTS
- Meeting of minds between two persons whereby one binds himself, with
respect to the other, to give something to or to render some service.
-It is a promise or a set of promises which the law recognizes as a duty and
when that duty is not performed, the law provides a remedy.
• Kinds of Contracts:
• 1. formal contract – refers to an agreement among parties involved and is
required to be in writing by some special laws.
• 2. informal contract – is one which is concluded as the result of a written
document or correspondence where the law does not require the same to
be in writing.
• 3. express contract – one in which the conditions and terms of the contract
are given orally or in writing by the parties concerned.
• 4. Implied Contract – one that is concluded as a result of acts of conduct of the parties to which
the law ascribes an objective intention to enter into a contract.
• 5. Void Contract – one that is inexistent from the very beginning and therefore may not be
enforced.
• - those contracts wherein one of the parties is incapable of giving consent to a contract., violence,
intimidation, undue influence or fraud.
• - those whose consent is vitiated by mistake ., violence, intimidation, undue influence or fraud.

• 6. Illegal Contract – is one that is expressly prohibited by law.

Examples of Illegal Contracts:
1. Those that are made in protection of the law.
2. Consent obtained by fraud.
3. Those obtained under duress.
4. Those obtained under undue influence.
5. Those obtained through material misrepresentation.
• Requisites of a Contract:
• 1. to have a contract, two or more persons must participate.
• 2. the parties involved must give consent to the contract.
• 3. the object which is the subject matter of the contract must be specified
• a. all things which are not outside the commerce of man.
• b. all rights which are not intransmissible.
 c. future inheritance in cases expressly authorized by law.
d. all services which are not contrary to law, morals, good customs,
public
order, and public policy.
4. The cause of obligation is established.
5. Contracting parties must have the legal capacity to enter into a contract.
 INEXISTENT CONTRACTS:
1.Those whose cause, object or purpose are contrary to law, morals, good
customs, public order, or public policy.
2. Those whose cause or object did not exist from the time of transaction.
3. Those whose object is outside the commerce of man.
4. Those which contemplate an impossible service.
5. Those where the intention of the parties relative to the principal object
cannot be ascertained.
6. Those expressly prohibited or declared void by law.
7. Those which are absolutely simulated or fictitious.
 BREACH OF CONTRACT
- Is failure to perform an agreement, whether expressed or implied, without
cause.
- The following constitute breach of contract for nursing services:
- 1. Prevention of performance.
- 2. Failure to perform because of inconvenience or difficulty.
- 3. Failure of cooperation in performance.
 4. Abandonment of duty.
5. substitution of performance;
6. failure to use due care.

ADVANTAGES OF WRITTEN CONTRACTS

1. A written contract is certain. It avoids the uncertainty of human memory.
. it can specify a definite time within which it is binding so as to protect
2

both sides against sudden changes without notice.

3. It sets a standard and relieves an individual professional person from
haggling over compensation.
4. It is more likely to be open and well known so that the use of written
contracts tends to establish minimum standards for professional practitioners and to
protect them against discrimination in compensation.
5. It is definite and can be definite in many details which may otherwise stimulate favoritism
or caprice even among professionals.
6. It can provide a definite procedure in case of complaints about subs-
standard work, so that the employer has a clear course and the
professional nurse has protection against arbitrary action.