JIWAJI UNIVERSITY

RAGHAV MISHRA
B. Com LLB
IVth Semester
Roll No. 181162596

Law of Torts
Defamation
Negligence
Remedies

Submitted To : Submitted By :
Tomar Mam Raghav Mishra
 Tort Law
What Is Tort Law?

Tort law is the area of the law that covers most civil suits.
Generally, every claim that arises in civil court, with the
exception of contractual disputes, falls under tort law. The
concept of this area of law is to redress a wrong done to a
person and provide relief from the wrongful acts of others,
usually by awarding monetary damages as
compensation. The original intent of tort is to provide full
compensation for proved harms. Lawsuits involving contracts
fall under contract law.

Tort law requires those who are found to be at fault for

harming others to compensate the victims. Typical harms
include the loss of past or future income, payment of medical
expenses, payment for pain and suffering, and may also
include additional punitive damages that are meant to punish
the plaintiff in excess of full compensation.
 Defamation

Defamation is a statement calculated to escape a person to

hatred, contempt or ridicule or to injure him in his trade,
business, profession, calling or offi ce.

It is of two types i.e. libel and slander.

Libel is a form of defamation in permanent form such as

written documents. It in itself is infringement of plaintiff ’s
rights and no actual damage is required.

Slander is the defamation is an oral or transient form

addressed to the ear. Slander may be uttered in the heat of
the moment and under sudden provocation. In India,
Slander is both a tort and crime but in England slander is
civil wrong only. Slander is the defamation in a transient
form, whether audible, as in spoken words, or visible, as in
the case of gesture. Slander is actionable only if plaintiff is
able to show special damages.
The following are defence to defamation-

Truth – In a defamation case, the defendant can only be

held liable if the statement involved was false. A true
statement does not meet the legal requirements for
defamation.

Absolute Privileges – Some defendants are protected from

liability in a defamation action based on the defendant’s
position or status. Absolute privileges apply to the following
proceedings and circumstances:

• judicial proceedings
• legislative proceedings
• some executive statements and publications
• publications between spouses
• publications required by law

 Conditional/Qualified Privileges – These privileges do

not arise as a result of the person making the
communication, but rather arise from the particular occasion
during which the statement was made. These privileges are
known as conditional, or qualified, privileges.
 Negligence
Negligence is a failure to care for someone like that a
reasonably prudent person would exercise in similar
circumstances

It is a non intentional tort and has four elements:-

• Duty of Care
• Breach of Duty
• Causation
• Injury

Duty of Care
It is the first element of negligence that the plaintiff must
prove to establish negligence. Duty of care is nothing but the
duty owed by the plaintiff towards the defendant.

a “three-fold test” to check if duty of care to arise:

• Harm must be reasonably foreseeable
• The parties must be in a relationship of proximity
• It must be fair, just and reasonable to impose liability
 • The landowner owes no ‘duty of care to a trespasser but
from willful injury.  They owe a reasonable ‘duty of care’
towards invitee and licensee.

Breach of Duty is the failure to maintain the required

standard of care.

In order to determine whether there has been breach of duty

one must check the following:
• the importance of the object to be attained
• the magnitude of the risk
• the amount of consideration for which services, etc. are
offered

Ordinary Prudence Test – Plaintiff must prove that

Defendant acted/omitted to do something, which a
“reasonable person of ordinary prudence” would, or would
not have done.
Kerala State Electricity Board v. Suresh Kumar (AIR 1986 Ker 72) –
A minor boy came in contact with overhead electric wire
which had sagged to 3 feet above the ground, got
electrocuted thereby and received burn injuries. The
Electricity Board had a duty to keep the overhead wire 15
feet above the ground. The Board was held liable for the
breach of its statutory duty.

Causation – It is the second element required to establish

negligence.  Causation is demonstration of the link between
the plaintiff ’s injury and defendant’s act which caused the
injury.  In order to establish negligence there must be
proximity in time and space between the defendant’s act and
injury. The injury must be foreseeable too.  Causation
actually has two components:

• Actual cause (also called “but for” cause)

• Proximate (also known as “legal” cause)

Note:
In strict liability cases there is no need to show causation.
Injury is the legal damage suffered by the plaintiff due to
defendant’s act or omission. The plaintiff has also to show
that the damage thus caused is not too remote a consequence
of the defendant’s negligence.

Damnum sine injuria – Damage without wrongful act;

damage or injury infl icted without any act of injustice; loss
or harm for which there is no legal remedy. It is also termed
damnum absque injuria.

Injuria sine damno– This maxim means injury without

damage. Wherever there is an invasion of a legal right, the
person in whom the right is vested is entitled to bring an
action and may be awarded damages although he has
suffered no actual damage. Thus, the act of trespassing upon
another’s land is actionable even though it has done the
plaintiff not the slightest harm.
 Remedies in Tort
When the aggrieved person is taken back to the position that
they were enjoying before their rights were infringed, they are
said to have been provided with a legal remedy. There are
various types of legal remedies.

For instance, if something that belongs to you has been taken

away from you by a party, the court can either ask them to
pay you back in money, or ask them to return your
belongings as they were, and may also punish the party in
some cases.

Remedies in Tort Law are of 2 types :

1. Judicial Remedies: These are the remedies that the

courts of law provide to an aggrieved party.

2. Extra-Judicial Remedies: If the injured party takes

the law in their own hand (albeit lawfully), the remedies
are called extra-judicial remedies.
Judicial remedies in tort are of three main types :

1. Damages: Damages or legal damages is the amount of

money paid to the aggrieved party to bring them back to
the position in which they were before the tort had
occurred. They are paid to a plaintiff to help them
recover the loss they have suffered. Damages are the
primary remedy in a cause of action for torts. The word
“damages” should not be confused with the plural of the
word “damage” which means ‘harm’ or ‘injury’.

2. Injunction:  Injunction is an equitable remedy available

in torts, granted at the discretion of the court. An
equitable remedy is one in which the court, instead of
compensating the aggrieved party, asks the other party to
perform his part of the promises. So, when a court asks a
person to not continue to do something, or to do
something positive so as to recover the damage of the
aggrieved party, the court is granting an injunction.

3. Specific Restitution of Property: the third judicial

remedy available in the Law of Torts is that of Specifi c
Restitution of Property. Restitution means the restoration
 of goods back to the owner of the goods. When a person
is wrongfully dispossessed of his property or goods, he is
entitled to the restoration of his property.

Extra-judicial Remedies in Tort

These are of five main types:

1. Expulsion of trespasser: A person can use a

reasonable amount of force to expel a trespasser from his
property.

2. Re-entry on land: In this case, the owner of a property

can remove the trespasser and re-enter his property by
using a reasonable amount of force.

3. Re-caption of goods: In this case, the owner of goods

is entitled to recapture his/her goods from any person
whose unlawful possession they are in.

4. Abatement: In case of a nuisance, be it private or

public, a person (the injured party) can remove the object
causing nuisance.
5. Distress Damage Feasant: Lastly, distress damage
feasant. In this case, a person’s cattle/other beasts move
to another’s property and his crops are spoiled. The
owner of the property is entitled to take possession of the
beasts until he is compensated for the loss suffered by
him.