What Are Torts?

Torts are actions that, intentionally or unintentionally, cause harm or loss to someone leading to civil legal liability.

What Are Common Law Torts?

Common law torts are a type of civil lawsuit. Common law, also known as case law, is a body of unwritten laws based on legal precedents established by the courts. The elements of a common law tort are what courts have held in prior decisions. Generally, common law elements of a tort should be similar to the actual codes written by the legislative body. Common law influences the decision-making process in unusual cases where the outcome cannot be determined based on existing statutes or written rules of law. A precedent, known as stare decisis, is a legal doctrine that obligates courts to follow historical cases when making a ruling on a similar case.
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There is a history of judicial decisions that form the basis of evaluation for future cases. Common law relies on detailed records of similar situations and statutes when there is no official legal code that can apply to a case at hand. The four elements to every successful tort case are:

• duty
• breach of duty
• causation
• injury​.

Tort lawsuits are the biggest area of civil litigation, and the three main types are:

• intentional torts
• negligence

• strict liability. 

How Can Common Law Torts Help You?

When Illegally Targeted People (ITPs) are abused, many want to sue and many do file lawsuits (see Targeted Cases). Wouldn’t it be great if ITPs  knew ahead of time whether or not their cases have the elements necessary to win?

ITPs need to know the elements of a common law tort and study the civil code they are suing on. They can even read the jury instructions, which can cover the elements that the jury will be given by the court to adjudicate a grievance complaint.

For instance, if you offered to sell your car for $1,000 and a person accepted, is that a contract? Could you enforce that in court? The answer is no because there was not “consideration.” 

The elements of common law for contract formation include offer, acceptance, and consideration. Of course, there are exceptions (an entire law school class) but those are the general elements. Targeted America will explain this in much more detail in the next months in the section “How to Represent Yourself.”

 

Elements Required to Win a Lawsuit

These are the elements required to win a lawsuit for the following common law torts (cause of action). Targeted America will soon have a section on "How to Represent Yourself" to explain how to executive a lawsuit successfully.
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Private Nuisance - you must meet all 3 criteria

1. The plaintiff owns the land or has the right to possess it; (legally renting an apartment is "right to possess it.") 
2. The defendant actually acted in a way that interferes with the plaintiff's enjoyment and use of his or her property; and.
3. The defendant's interference was substantial and unreasonable.

Invasion of Privacy - Intrusion Upon Seclusion - must meet all 4 criteria

1. Intentionally invaded the private affairs of the plaintiff;
2. Offensive to a reasonable person
3. Private matter
4. Caused mental anguish or suffering

Invasion of Privacy - Public Disclosure of Private Facts - must meet all 4 criteria

1. Public Disclosure
2. Private Fact
3. Offensive to a Reasonable Person
4. Not Newsworthy

 Invasion of Privacy -False Light - must meet all 4 criteria
 

1. A publication by the defendant about the plaintiff
2. It was done with reckless disregard
3. It places the plaintiff in a false light and
4. It would be highly offensive or embarrassing to a reasonable person.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED) - must meet all 4 criteria

To establish defendant’s conduct caused plaintiff to suffer severe emotional distress, plaintiff must prove all of the following:

1. That defendant’s conduct was extreme and outrageous;
2. That defendant intended to cause plaintiff emotional distress OR that defendant acted with reckless disregard of the probability that plaintiff would suffer emotional distress, knowing that plaintiff was present when the conduct occurred;
3. That plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress; and
4. That defendant’s conduct was a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s severe emotional distress.

 
A defendant’s conduct is ‘outrageous’ when it is so ‘extreme as to exceed all bounds of that usually tolerated in a civilized community.’ And the defendant’s conduct must be ‘intended to inflict injury or engaged in with the realization that injury will result.’ ” (Hughes v. Pair (2009) 46 Cal.4th 1035, 1050—1051 [95 Cal.Rptr.3d 636, 209 P.3d 963])
 
Outrageous conduct” is conduct so extreme that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency. Conduct is outrageous if a reasonable person would regard the conduct as intolerable in a civilized community. Outrageous conduct does not include trivialities such as indignities, annoyances, hurt feelings, or bad manners that a reasonable person is expected to endure.
Conduct to be outrageous must be so extreme as to exceed all bounds of that usually tolerated in a civilized community.” (Davidson v. City of Westminster (1982) 32 Cal.3d 197, 209 [185 Cal.Rptr. 252, 649 P.2d 894].)
 
The California Supreme Court has stated the required elements in at least two separate cases. The elements are (1) extreme and outrageous conduct by the defendant with the intention of causing, or reckless disregard of the probability of causing, emotional distress; (2) the plaintiff’s suffering severe or extreme emotional distress; and (3) actual and proximate causation of the emotional distress by the defendant’s outrageous conduct. The emotional distress must be severe and it must be such that no reasonable person in a civilized society should be expected to endure it. And it must be substantial or enduring rather than trivial or transitory.

“Severe emotional distress is emotional distress of such substantial quantity or enduring quality that no reasonable person in a civilized society should be expected to endure it.” Fletcher v. Western Life Insurance Co. (1970) 10 Cal.App.3d 376, 397.

In discussing the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, a venerable legal treatise, the Restatement of Torts states that, “Generally, the case is one in which the recitation of the facts to an average person would lead him to exclaim “THATS OUTRAGEOUS!!!” Restatement (Third) Torts § 45.

Assault - must meet both criteria

1. The act was intended to cause apprehension of harmful or offensive contact; and
2. the act indeed caused apprehension in the victim that harmful or offensive contact would occur - in the mind of a reasonable person

Battery - must meet all 4 criteria
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1. Intent - Battery is a general intent offense. This means that the actor need not intend the specific harm that will result from the unwanted contact, but only to commit an act of unwanted contact.
2. Contact - Non-consensual contact may be made with either a person or that person's extended personality. This means that if one person leans forward and yanks the jewelry necklace off another, a battery has occurred, even though the first person never actually touched the neck of the second person
3. Harm - A plaintiff or complainant in a case for battery does not have to prove an actual physical injury. Rather, the plaintiff must prove an unlawful and unpermitted contact with his or her person or property in a harmful or offensive manner. This, in and of itself, is deemed injurious.
4. Damages – Substantial harm is not required, but nonetheless, there must be palpable harm (be it physical, emotional, or monetary compensatory (a monetary award), along with special relief such as injunctive or punitive.