Please answer the following questions completely (applying the legal concepts).
ID: 388920 • Letter: P
Question
Please answer the following questions completely (applying the legal concepts).
1. What is the difference between compensatory damages and punitive damages?
2. What is the difference between an intentional and an unintentional tort? Please give an example of each.
3. Please explain the duty of care and the reasonable person standard in negligence.
4. Defamation. Richard is an employee of the Dun Construction Corp. While delivering materials to a construction site, he carelessly backs Dun's truck into a passenger vehicle driven by Green. This is Richard's second acciden tin six months. When the company owner, Dun, learns of this latest accidents, a heated discussion ensues, and Dun fires Richard. Dun is so angry that he immediately writes a letter to the union of which Richard is a member and to all other construction companies in the community, stating that Richard is the "worst driver in the city" and that "anyone who hires him is asking for legal liability." Richard files a suit against Dun, alleging libel on the basis of the statements made in the letters. Discuss the results.
Explanation / Answer
Compensatory damage is also known as the actual damages that have happened to the victim. Punitive damages are quite rare and levied only when the court is quite sure that the accuser’s misconduct was intentional or due to sheer carelessness.
2. Intentional tort is a tort or a wrong act conducted intentionally. Unintentional tort, on the other hand, is a result of negligence.
Intention tort comprises battery, fraud, slander, libel, etc. while an unintentional tort comprises negligence and vicarious liability
Example of intentional tort is a fraud done to make profits. Example of unintentional tort is a road accident which happened due to brake fail and was not intentional.
3. Reasonal person is basically a fictitious character used in personal injury cases. Reasonable person is the ideal person, who behaves ideally in any situation. Jurors use the concept of reasonable person to distinguish the act conducted by the accused and the probable act conducted by an ideal person in similar situation. The act of the ideal person is considered as a standard of reasonable care.
Duty of care is the liability or the legal obligation which is imposed on the accused involved in personal injury cases. This duty of care is basically adherence to the standard of reasonable care to be performed by the accused with the involved victim or group of victims.
4. Richard can file a defamation case against Dun Construction Corp.. As the defamation is done through writing, so it is a libel.
A case of libel defamation can be filed if there are 4 elements present in the lawsuit:
The torts to be proved in libel defamation case:
In such cases the plaintiff is entitled to receive: