AFM231 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: False Imprisonment, Indictable Offence, Malicious Falsehood
18 May 2018
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Chapter 12- Other Torts
Bakgoud: Ro “ithso os a sall aufatuig opa. Thee’s a eleato i his fato. A
customer Julie Osbourne went in the elevator and got hit from a plate that fell above the elevator. It fell
because the maintenance company Elevator XL service hired by Smithson ran out of plate and Smithson
knew they were using a broken plate but he was ensured that a proper plate would be installed on the
very next day.
Another incident happened when he saw a replica of his best-selling figure- Old Man of the Sea. A
bootleg. He was concerned about the impact that sales of this competing figure will have on his business
Introduction
• The following examples
• A customer in a grocery store slips on a lettuce and falls, breaking his ankle
• A salesperson intentionally overstates an important quality of a product
• Business may have interfered with a legitimate interest of another and could be subject to a tort
action
• Business are also protected by the same law when it is the victim of a tort. For example
• A newspaper columnist maligns the environmental record of a business
• Vandals continually spray paint graffiti on factory walls
• A competitor entices a skilled employee to break his employment contract and join the
opetito’s usiess
• Tort actions relevant to businesses can be conveniently divided between those that arise because a
business occupies a property and those that arise because of actual business operations
Torts and Property Use
• An occupier is generally defined as someone who has some degree of control over land or buildings
on that land
• E.g. an enterprise conducting business on property is an occupier, whether it is the owner, a
tenant, or a temporary provider of service
• Possible to have more than one occupier of land or a building
• Ron, is an occupier and Elevator XL service is an occupier hired to maintain elevator
Oupies’ Liailit
• Describes the liability that occupiers have to anyone who enters onto their land or property.
• Varies by jurisdiction
Liability at Common Law
• The liability of the occupier for mishaps on property is not determined by the ordinary principles of
negligence. Rather it classifies the visitor as a trespasser, licensee, invitee, or contractual entrant
• Each class is owed a different standard of care going from lowest to highest
• A contractual entrant is someone who has contracted and paid for the right to enter the premises
• E.g. visitors that bought tickets to see an exhibit
• Duty owed to this class is a warranty that the premises are as safe as reasonable care and
skill on the part of anyone can make them
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• An invitee is someone whose presence on the property is of benefit to the occupier such as store
customers
• A light lower duty of care than contractual entrant.
• Must a the iitee of a uusual dage, of hih he kos o he ought to ko
• No need to warn about ordinary reasonable danger
• Julie is an invitee and her plate accident is an unusual danger → entitled to hold the owner
and elevator company liable for injuries
• A licensee is someone who has been permitted by the occupier to enter for the benefit of the
licensee
• If Ron allowed people accessing an adjacent business to cut through his property has a short
cut, those users would be licensee
• Occupiers are responsible to licensees for any unusual danger of which they are aware or
that they have reason to know about
• Hard to tell an invitee from a licensee
• A trespasser is soeoe ho goes o the lad ithout iitatio ad hose pesee is eithe
uko to the oupie o ko ad is patiall ojeted to e.g. burglar
• Still owes some liability- for acts done with the deliberate intention of doing harm to the
trespasser, or an act done with reckless disregard for the presence of the trespasser
• Owe the duty of acting with common humanity
• If the trespasser is a child, the court usually reclassifies the trespasser as a licensee,
interpreted the duty owed the trespasser very generously
Liailit ude Oupies’ Liailit Legislatio
• Pupose: to eplae the soehat otuse oo la of oupies’ liailit a geealized dut
of ase ased o the eighou piiple set do i Dooghue “teeso
• In general, an occupier must not create deliberate harm or danger
• I Julie’s ase, the eleato opa ad Ro ould e liale eause a oupie oes a statuto
dut of ae as i all the iustaes of the ase is easoale to see that pesos eteig o
the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while
o the peises
The Tort of Nuisance
• The tort of nuisance addresses conflicts between neighbours stemming from land use
• It concerns intentional or unintentioal atios take o oe eighou’s lad that ause ha of
soe sot o aothe’s, fo eaple
• Noise from a steel faiato’s ahie iteupts the eighous’ sleep
• Ashes escaping from a rendering company are carried onto neighbouring properties
• Test is to see hethe the ipuged atiit has esulted i a ueasoale ad sustatial
itefeee ith the use ad ejoet of lad
• In striking a balance between the respective parties, courts have developed the following guidelines
• Interference must be substantial and unreasonable
• Nuisance typically does not arise where the interference is only temporary e.g. construction
is temporary and will not lead to a remedy in nuisance
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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