Английский язык для юристов. Предпринимательское право - стр. 3
Businesspeople must be especially aware of tort law because of the doctrine of respondeat superior (let the master respond). That doctrine may impose legal liability on employers and make them pay for the torts committed by their employees within the scope of the employer's business.
No legal liability can be imposed against an individual unless two elements are present: the first element is duty, which is an obligation placed on individuals because of the law; the second element is a violation of that duty. A duty can be violated intentionally, through negligence, or under the theory of strict liability.
Legal duties arise corresponding to each right within each member of our society.
Intentional violations of duty include a variety of intentional torts, all of which have their own individual elements. The principal intentional torts are assault, battery, false imprisonment, defamation, invasion of privacy, misuse of legal procedure, infliction of emotional distress, nuisance, and interference with a contract.
People and property are sometimes injured even when no one intends that the injury occur. Such an occurrence is usually labeled «an accident.» Justice demands that the injured party be compensated. That part of tort law that is concerned with the compensation of accident victims is called negligence.
Under what circumstances can the actions of an alleged tortfeasor be labeled negligent so that the tortfeasor will be held liable? Four elements must be present to establish negligence: (1) legal duty, (2) breach of duty through a failure to meet the appropriate standard of care, (3) proximate cause, and (4) actual injury.
A breach of duty owed to the victim occurs if the tortfeasor has not met the appropriate standard of care under the circumstances. To determine if the alleged tortfeasor has met the standard of care, the court uses the reasonable person test. This test compares the actions of the tortfeasor with those of a reasonable person in a similar situation. The reasonable person test is objective.
Determining this test may require the use of expert witnesses to testify as to the reasonable professional's conduct under the circumstances.
In order for the tortfeasor to be held liable, the unreasonable conduct must be the proximate cause of the victim's injuries. Proximate cause (sometimes referred to as legal cause) is the connection between the unreasonable conduct and the resulting harm.
The injured party in a lawsuit for negligence must show that actual harm