How do crimes and torts differ.

A crime is an offense against society. It is a public wrong.

A tort, in contrast, is a private or civil wrong - an offense against an individual. If a tort occurs, the person injured can sue and obtain a judgment for money damages from the person who committed the tort. The money is intended to compensate for the injury.

One act can be both a tort and a crime. Then the defendant is both criminally liable (for a fine and/or a jail sentence) and civilly liable (for monetary damages).

What are the elements of a tort?

Like criminal law, tort law is a broad legal category. Just as there are many specific crimes, such as murder and shoplifting, there are many specific torts. There are, however, certain elements which are common to all torts. In a trial, these elements must be proved to establish liability (legal responsibility) for any specific tort. The elements of a tort are:

1. a duty owed by one person to another to do or
not to do a certain thing,

2. violation or breachof the duty,

3. injury recognized by the law, and

4. proximate causation of the injury by the breach.

The Duty

By law everyone has certain rights. Since everyone has the duty to respect the rights of others, everyone therefore has certain resultant duties. The following are the principal duties created by tort law:

1. the duty not to injure the another person:this
includes bodily injury, injury to someone's
reputation, or invasion of someone's privacy,

2. the duty not to interfere with the property rights
of others, such as by trespassing on their land,

3. the duty not to interfere with the economic rights
of others, such as the right to contract.

Violation of the Duty

A breach (or violation) of the duty, must be proved before the injured party can collect damages for a tort. Whether there has been a breach of a tort duty is almost always a question of fact for a jury to decide.

Some torts require that the breach be intentional. In other torts, intent is not required; it is enough if the breach occurred because someone was careless or negligent. In still other torts, even carelessness violated and this caused injury. Torts are often classified on the basis of their requirements for intent or carelessness:

1) One group of torts is called intentional torts.

2) Another group of torts is called negligence.

3) The last group, where neither intent nor care­lessness is required, is strict liability.

Injury

Generally injury resulting from the breach of duty is required before the courts will hold a person liable in tort. For example, if you act very recklessly, but no one is injured, there is usually no tort.

Proximate Causation

Causation is simply the idea that the breach of the duty caused the injury. There are degrees of causation. When the amount of causation is great enough for it to be recognized by the law, it is called proximate cause. Generally proximate cause exists when it is foreseeable that a particular breach of duty will result in a particular injury.

 

Vocabulary notes:

tort – деликт, гражданское правонарушение	injury – телесное повреждение
to commit a tort – совершить гражданское правонарушение	proximate cause – непосредственная (ближайшая) причина
civilly liable – нести гражданскую ответственность	to collect damages – подать жалобу на возмещение ущерба
liability – обязанность, ответственность	intentional tort – умышленное гражданское правонарушение
duty – обязанность, долг	negligence – небрежность; невнимательность; халатность
violation (breach) of the duty – нарушение обязанностей	strict liability– обязанность возмещать ущерб, причиненный другим лицам

 

 

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between a crime and a tort?

2. What relief can a victim of a tort obtain?

3. What are the elements of a tort?

4. What are the principal duties of everyone?

5. Give an example of intentional tort.

6. Give an example of negligence.

7. What is causation?

III. Find in the text above English equivalents for the following words and expressions:

1. пострадавший

2. компенсировать ущерб

3. уголовноответственный

4. тюремный приговор

5. особые преступления

6. определенные права

7. причинить телесные повреждения

8. вмешательство в чью-либо личную жизнь

9. не вмешиваться в экономические права кого-либо

10.действовать небрежно, неосторожно

11. каузация, причинность

12. быть признанным законом

 

IV. Translate into Russian:

1. A tort is an unlawful act that causes private injury to
the person or property of another.

2. Most crimes are also torts, but not all torts are crimes

3. Torts may be broadly classified as intentional torts,
negligence, or strict liability.

4. The most common tort is negligence, which is the
failure to act with reasonable care, thus causing a
foreseeable injury to another.

5. In a tort caused by negligence, the negligent act (or
failure to act) must be the proximate cause of the
injury. That is, the injury must follow as a natural
and reasonably foreseeable effect of the act (or fail­ure to act).

6. Generally every individual is personally responsible
for damage resulting from any torts committed by
that individual.

7.In some states, if the injured person was also negli­gent and the negligence contributed to the injury, the injured person may be barred from recovering damages.

8. A person injured by a tort is entitled to damages-monetary compensation for the loss or injury suffered. The amount of damages is determined by the jury.

TEXT 5C

I. Read and translate the text. Sum up the information you’ve learned from it: